Eric Balchunas: zcash could divide interest in bitcoin

Source: Criptonoticias Original Title: Eric Balchunas: zcash could divide interest in bitcoin Original Link: https://www.criptonoticias.com/mercados/eric-balchunas-zcash-dividir-interes-bitcoin/

• Zcash (ZEC) is one of the cryptocurrencies that has increased the most in price in the last 12 months.
• For Balchunas, bitcoin (BTC) is at a crucial moment.

Eric Balchunas, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, warned that zcash (ZEC), a privacy-focused cryptocurrency, is capable of diverting attention or capital that is currently allocated to bitcoin (BTC).

“Zcash has the air of third-party candidates, like Gary Johnson or Jill Stein. It seems better to incorporate their ideas into the main party rather than splitting the vote, which could have significant consequences,” he notes.

It is worth clarifying that Gary Johnson and Jill Stein were presidential candidates of minor parties in the United States — the Libertarian and the Green — which, although they had no real chances of winning, could take votes away from the major parties.

Balchunas uses this comparison to explain that ZEC could have a similar role against bitcoin. According to him, it does not compete to lead the market, but it could divide the attention or interest that is currently concentrated on BTC.

Moreover, the specialist believes that this is a “crucial moment for BTC”. Balchunas suggests that, although bitcoin and zcash are distinct projects, some privacy ideas from zcash could be incorporated in a regulated manner into BTC. This is to prevent the market interest from fragmenting.

In other words, consider that this is a crucial moment for bitcoin because it is in a stage of institutional adoption and regulatory expansion. Consequently, any fragmentation of the ecosystem could influence its perception and investor confidence.

However, Balchunas' mistake is in overstating the performance of ZEC and comparing it to BTC.

It is worth noting that zcash has become the trendy altcoin due to its outstanding performance.

In the last 12 months, ZEC increased by 800%, as seen in the following chart:

ZEC is trading above 500 dollars.

This is just another altcoin, like so many that have already had their rise —and so many others that will still have it—, something that Balchunas may end up magnifying because he is not a specialist in BTC, but in ETFs. The analyst himself acknowledges this by saying that “I am just a fan of exchange-traded funds (ETF).”