Brett Heath, CEO of Metalla Royalty & Streaming, a Canadian company that offers access to precious metals through royalties, has said the leading cryptocurrency could trigger the next financial crisis.
The entrepreneur has compared the popularity of digital assets and the dotcom bubble in the early 2000s and the 2008 mortgage crisis. According to Heath, a hallmark of all crises is the massive introduction of a product or technology that is not correctly understood. He explained:
"If we look back to the 2008 mortgage crisis, then there was a massive introduction of mortgage-backed securities backed by debt obligations. And as soon as society accepted this new financial product, it collapsed. It was a big problem."
There could be a serious financial panic if the capitalization of digital assets reached $3-10 trillion, and then cryptos would simply disappear, Heath says. According to him, this will lead to tangible financial consequences.
Brett Heath has questioned the amount of liquidity the crypto market has accumulated since the early 2020s, as he believes cryptocurrencies are "a license for the private sector to print money."