English 
Français ASIDE FROM BITCOIN, OTHER CRYPTOCURRENCIES ARE SOARING
There are now around 40 cryptocurrencies with a market capitalisation of over €1 billion, compared with just seven six months ago
It’s not just about Bitcoin; there’s also Ethereum (on the right).
When people think of cryptocurrency, they often think of Bitcoin. However, there are currently some 1,400 other virtual currencies, and dozens are being created every week, at a rate that is causing many experts and financial players to shudder.
Bitcoin remains the most high-profile virtual currency, and the one with the greatest market capitalisation, at over €200 billion, but it is by no means the most profitable.
With a 1,318% surge in 2017, the benchmark cryptocurrency does not even feature in the top 10 best performers of the past year. The gold medal goes to Ripple, a cryptocurrency that posted 36,000% growth last year and which, at the start of the year, crossed the €100 billion market capitalisation threshold.
“Its price soared when a newspaper reported that around a hundred financial institutions were going to use their technological system,” explains Alexandre Stachtchenko, co-founder of Blockchain Partner, a consultancy specialising in the field.
This does not mean that banks will adopt the currency itself, if at all. This leads Alexandre David, founder and chairman of Eureka Certification, a specialist in the sector, to say that the value of Ripple “is purely speculative”.
Another criticism: the concentration of this virtual currency, as fifteen people are said to hold between 60 and 80% of it – among them, one of its creators, Chris Larsen. According to Forbes magazine’s rankings, his wealth, entirely virtual, briefly allowed him at the start of the year to overtake Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as the fifth richest person in the United States.
Another prominent name: ether. Behind this unit of account lies “ethereum”, a trading protocol created in 2009 by a 19-year-old programmer, deemed promising by some specialists.
Around forty virtual currencies have now crossed the €1 billion market capitalisation threshold, whereas there were only seven six months ago. Some, such as Cardano, are even worth €15 billion just three months after their creation.
“This will end badly”
To set themselves apart from one another, cryptocurrencies are focusing on IT security – for example, Cardano, which aims to be particularly reliable – or on connected devices —IOTA, which aims to ensure that “machines can understand one another and are capable of sending value and money to one another without going through a human or a centralised third party,” explains Mr Stachtchenko.
Others emphasise anonymity (Monero), the issuance of shares and bonds (NEM) or the speed of transaction confirmation (Litecoin). “It is important to understand that it is impossible for a single cryptocurrency to be the best for every use case,” he concludes.
Warnings are pouring in regarding this speculative surge, from the biggest names in global finance as well as regulatory authorities.
On Wednesday, the American billionaire investor Warren Buffett, regarded as the oracle of the markets, stated: “I can say with near certainty that this is all going to end badly.” “We own none of them, we are not betting on their decline, and we will never invest” in these cryptocurrencies, he insisted.
And on Thursday, the South Korean government sent shockwaves through the market by announcing that Seoul was preparing to ban cryptocurrency exchange platforms, before backtracking.
For the time being, the turbulence is likely to continue in this volatile market, alternating between bouts of feverish activity and sharp slumps. “When Wall Street bonuses are paid into bank accounts on 15 January, I imagine an epic rush” into virtual currencies, speculated Meltem Demirors, head of an investment firm specialising in the sector (Digital Currency Group), on Twitter recently.
