Bitcoin expert Erik Finman: crypto is dead

Former acolytes of Bitcoin have given up on digital currencies. Photo/Getty Images.

One of first crypto millionaires has turned his back on digital currencies.

Speaking to the New York Post, Erik Finman, an early investor in cryptocurrencies, said it's all going to the bin.

"Bitcoin is dead, it's too fragmented, there's tons of infighting. I just don't think it will last," he said.

"It may have a bull market or two left in it," he added, "but long-term, it's dead."

He was particularly harsh in reference to Litecoin, which has plunged 95 per cent since its peak.

He said the sun had pretty much gone down on the cryptocurrency.

Finman isn't alone in his dire predictions for cryptocurrencies.

This week former Bitcoin Cash advocate Calvin Ayre told trade publication CCN he expected bitcoin to crash to zero because it was worthless.

Ayre said that Bitcoin has no utility and that it doesn't serve any clear purpose.

These comments come off the back of year, which saw unprecedented interest in the esoteric world of cryptocurrencies.

'What is bitcoin?' was the most searched definition in the US and UK in 2018, according to Google Trends.

While previously notorious among anarchists and day traders, bitcoin, which turned 10 this year, gained mainstream recognition after surging 1,400 percent in 2017 and then falling 80 percent in 2018. But making sense of assets that are digital, created by computer networks and susceptible to extreme volatility is no mean feat. And that's not to mention all the jargon: blockchain, hash rate, miners and nodes.

Bitcoin is not the only cryptocurrency Google users are interested in. 'How to buy Ripple' was the fourth most-asked how to question, Google Trends data show. The cryptocurrency widely referred to as Ripple is actually named XRP, just to add to the mayhem.

At the time of writing, bitcoin was at NZ$5,173 (US$3510), down from a peak of almost US$20,000 on 17 December 2017.