Bitcoin has failed miserably as a currency, says NYU “valuation dean”

Aswath Damodaran, a finance professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, has repeated his criticism of Bitcoin (BTC).

The NYU professor, who appeared on episode 10 of the Moneycontrol Masterclass show, doubled his long-standing rejection of Bitcoin as a currency.

According to Damodaran, the limited use of Bitcoin in microtransactions is faced with claims that BTC can exist as a form of money, namely:

“In my opinion, a good currency is a currency that can be used to buy coffee, buy houses, and buy cars, and in that respect Bitcoin has failed, not just failed miserably.”

For the NYU professor, dubbed Wall Street’s “dean of valuation”, Bitcoin’s only claim to fame lies in the returns of early investors. “When I meet bitcoin enthusiasts, they seem to promote the view that bitcoin is a great currency because they made a lot of money from it,” said Damodaran.

The NYU professor previously offered similar variations of this anti-Bitcoin comment on BTC not being a viable form of currency. During the 2017 bull market, Damodaran suggested that market capitalization growth was not the right metric to determine Bitcoin’s success.

Back in April, Damodaran identified volatility and high transaction costs as the main obstacles to Bitcoin’s viability as a medium of exchange. However, the NYU professor’s criticism does not explain the growing adoption of BTC in the face of financial censorship in many parts of the world.

Connected: NYU professor says ether is a better commodity than bitcoin

Not only does Damodaran reject Bitcoin as a currency, but it also contradicts the view that BTC is a hedge against inflation. According to the NYU professor, BTC behaved like a risky stock during the March 2020 market volatility.

Damodaran did not mention that Bitcoin 2020 will end with a seven-fold increase in price compared to the crash on Black Thursday in March 2020.

The professor’s move away from treating Bitcoin as a currency to rejecting it as an asset class also appears to be an emerging topic. Back in May, Damodaran stated that ether (ETH) had a better chance of becoming a commodity than BTC.