• The multiple billionaire Mike Novogratz expresses serious concerns that the USA could lose the leading role in the Blockchain and Fintech sector to China.
• The developments of recent days clearly show that China has been preparing for this moment for years.

For a long time, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology were considered “bad” innovations in China, which did not enjoy a good reputation in the country. On Friday, however, the wind turned and President Xi praised the blockchain to the skies. Bitcoin bull Mike Novogratz describes in several interviews and on Twitter that the United States could lose its leading role in Fintech to China.

Will China become the new innovation leader in Blockchain and Fintech?

As we reported earlier, Xi praised the benefits and potential of the blockchain and the opportunities it offers for the nation. As a result, the price of many cryptocurrencies that have their headquarters in China or originate in China has risen rapidly over the weekend to date. Irrespective of the current price development, Novogratz warns that China is strongly pushing the development of blockchain and digital assets.

He writes that the regulatory authorities in the United States are sluggish and do not allow technical innovations from the Fintech sector:

If the US regulators don’t allow for fintech innovation, the Chinese will eat our lunch. Xi’s comments on Friday were significant. Crypto and blockchain will be part of the financial and consumer infrastructure in the future.

Even if Xi does not directly address Bitcoin, traditional financial markets and financial instruments will increasingly merge with commercial technologies from blockchain and fintech. The adaptation of Bitcoin, Blockchain, Stablecoins and other digital assets will continue to evolve and are likely to have a greater impact on the global payment markets. Novogratz explains (freely translated):

The acceptance of digital assets, being stable coins for payment systems, or securities offerings in tokenized form, or new forms of value like $btc are all synergistic. What Xi is hinting at is the future will contain all of them.

China is about to launch the digital yuan on which the nation has been working for the last 5 years. Novogratz told CNBC in an interview that neither Libra, Facebook’s digital currency, nor the digital yuan pose a threat to Bitcoin. He also added that they could further promote the adaptation of Bitcoin (freely translated):

They’re actually additive to Bitcoin because both what China’s working on – a digital renminbi – and what Libra is – which is going to be either a digital dollar or a digital basket of currencies or some version of that – are payment systems really, or currencies, where Bitcoin is gold.

China sets course for further progress

On 01 January the “cryptography law” will come into force, which is to regulate the commercial use of the Blockchain in the industry and the economy. However, the law also contains further recommendations for the issuance of digital assets and other complex processes in connection with the blockchain technology.

Significant is also the development that one of the largest banks in China, has invested in one of the oldest Bitcoin-Wallets provder of the country – BitPie. In addition, the Sichuan site is to be made even more attractive for Bitcoin mining and promoted accordingly. It therefore remains to be seen whether Mike Novogratz will be right or whether the USA will follow suit in the coming months.