Crypto Is Being Assessed Incorrectly, Says Ex-OCC Head Brian Brooks

Former U.S. Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks said recently that evaluating cryptocurrencies based on their capacity to serve as surrogates for the U.S. dollar is the wrong way to look at them, CNBC reported Tuesday (June 28).

Brooks, who now is CEO of Netherlands-based bitcoin mining company Bitfury, told CNBC it makes more sense to assess cryptocurrencies as if they were internet stocks.

Some observers suggest that if cryptocurrency is “not doing a great job of replacing the U.S. dollar, then crypto is failing in its mission,” Brooks said during an interview with the news network at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Major coins bitcoin and ethereum have lost 2.5% and 3% of their value, respectively, on the Coinbase exchange over the 24 hours ending at 5:30 p.m. EDT June 28.

See also: US Comptroller Takes a Victory Lap on Crypto

“Most of crypto is about replacing the centralized banking system with networks that allow user control versus bank control … the crypto assets that have prices are more like internet stocks,” Brooks said. “It’s more like you bet on Google if you think there’s going to be high internet traffic; if you short it, it’s that people are going to go back to the post office, right?

“But it’s not that ethereum or Ripple or anything else is trying to replace the U.S. dollar, it’s trying to replace the system of transmitting value.”

Brooks noted that for all its volatility, bitcoin has outperformed the S&P500 fivefold over the past 12 months.

“The value of these tokens you’re getting is related to the adoption rate of the underlying technology, that tens of millions of people are transacting bitcoin, the value of bitcoin goes way up,” he said. “That is why bitcoin isn’t going to stay at $20,000, because more and more people use it. Same with a lot of other things. The value of the network is what drives the value of the token.”

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