Former IMF Chief Economist: Bitcoin will eventually collapse but blockchain will survive

Kenneth Rogoff, former IMF chief economist and professor of economics at Harvard University

CNBC reported in the early morning of the 10th Beijing time that Kenneth Rogoff, former chief economist of the IMF and professor of economics at Harvard University, said on Monday that as cryptocurrencies continue to face regulatory pressure from governments, the price of Bitcoin will eventually "collapse", but the blockchain technology that supports Bitcoin will flourish.

“My best guess is that in the long term the technology will thrive but the price of bitcoin will collapse,” he said in an article for the Guardian and Project Syndicate.

Since the beginning of the year, the price of Bitcoin has risen 365%, although it plummeted after Chinese authorities tightened regulations, but then rebounded. As of 2:44 p.m. EST on Monday (2:44 a.m. Beijing time on Tuesday), the price of Bitcoin rose 2.5% to $4,718.5.

Rogoff believes that increasing efforts from governments to restrict virtual currencies may eventually lead to a decline in speculative interest in digital assets.

He said: "The long history of currency tells us that all innovations in the private sector will eventually be regulated and distributed by the government. I don't know what the price of Bitcoin will be like in the next few years, but there is no reason to expect virtual currencies to avoid a similar fate."