Alibaba Owner Jack Ma Expresses His Views on Bitcoin

Alibaba and Alipay owner Jack Ma reiterates his earlier sentiment that bitcoin, the world’s first and still most popular cryptocurrency, is a bubble.

Mr. Ma has given this statement again during the unveiling of his company’s partnership with Philippines’ GCash to use blockchain in cross-border remittances between Hong Kong and the Philippines.

According to Mr. Ma, bitcoin is being driven by speculation and thus he cautions investors when dealing with a volatile cryptocurrency.

Notable people share Mr. Ma’s sentiment about bitcoin, including Nobel Prize winner for economics Robert J. Shiller. Mr. Shiller thinks bitcoin is more of a “social movement, an epidemic of enthusiasm”. However, he doesn’t think its value will go down to zero.

However, others are still predicting bitcoin’s value to surge by the end of this year, including Fundstrat’s Thomas Lee.

The Alibaba owner, however, thinks that blockchain has a lot of potential to disrupt existing industries. “It could change the world more than people imagine,” he said in a statement. Especially in finance, Mr. Ma thinks traditional financial institutions have failed because they “serve only 20% of the people and make 80% profit”.

Alipay and GCash’ partnership enables users to transfer money from Hong Kong to the Philippines via the blockchain. As per Globe Telecom’s statement, transaction fees will be waived for the first 3 months. Mr. Ma confirmed that the transfer of money using the blockchain was completed within 3 seconds.