Comparic.com had an opportunity to conduct a short interview with Roy Michael, head of cryptocurrency and financial data at investing.com. The transcript is available below:

When you firstly approached the cryptocurrency market? What was the start?

Roy Michaeli, Head of Cryptocurrency and Financial Data at Investing.com: I was first introduced to bitcoin in 2013, while managing an algo-trading startup. Some memebrs of my development team got involved right before MT Gox was hacked and stolen for hundreds of millions of dollars.

The end of the year is always the time of forecasts. In your opinion, which cryptocurrency has a chance for the biggest increase in 2018 and where do you see the Bitcoin prices in the next months?

R.M.: Bitcoin is definately the most recognized cryptocurrency, and after years of scepticism it is now getting attention by the younger generation and early adopters market participants. This leads for very high returns in a very short time. Not sure we will see Bitcoin as one of the top gainers of 2018, there are several other coins which has a very interesting strategy and unique technology behind them like IOTA, EOS, Ripple and Litecoin. There are also some new riasing stars like Cardano and TRON which may steal some focus.

How do you relate to the statement that the crypto-market is one of the largest speculative bubble in the history? Similarly to the dot-com bubble, we are witnessing companies which shares are shooting up immediately after changing their name or profile of activities to these related with blockchain technology.

R.M.: There is definately a “buzz” around bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general in the last few months. Most people would still agree that the blockchain technology is very intereting and can be implemented in many industries. Usually a bubble causing a market meltdown is the one you don’t see rather than the one you are pointing at. I would say that one should be responsible about his/hers investment and make sure to allocate money in a smart way.

There are several Bitcoin network forks behind us, and another few were already confirmed. Do you thing that such diversification is good for the cyrpotucrrency market, or can hurt it?

R.M.: The market is still looking for a better blockchain technology, currently bitcoin has done a lot of things very good while others are still not great. The market needs this technology to imporve, that may come from a bitcoin fork or from other crypto coins.

Bitcoin is accused of having become “impractical” at the moment – due to too long transactions time (5 hours on average) and commissions above $20. Is there a potential solution to this problem?

R.M.: There are better technologies out there which cuts down the time of each transaction and a lot of briliant people keep trying to solve more problems in bitcoin technology. In my opinion, commissions are a separate discussion and if you look at the history of the financial markets, they have tendency to drop over time. Having said that, considering today’s volatility comissisions are negligible.

The growing popularity of the crypto assets among investors means that the financial watchdogs are also talking about it. In your opinion, supervision at the national level is really that necessary and what is more important, possible?

R.M.: Those discussions are probably good for its popularity, but are also making people think harder before they invest. The regulator is already there in many ways, even if not in the role of the central bank or the policy maker. In my opinion some things need supervision more than others and I hope the regulator will be smart about the way he approcah those issues to protect the investors but also to keep him relevant in this new enviroment. I think it will be better to create more transparancy of the people involved in cryptocurrency markets and especially in new ICOs.

The regulators pay a lot of attention to ICO projects, which became a popular form of crodwsale this year. The latest statistics show, however, that the biggest boom in this industry is already passing. What is the main reason?

R.M.: Early stage ICOs enjoyed being the first in a gorwing market, many people who invested in bitcoin or ethereum in early stages gained significant amount of money and looked for other alternatives. A lot of those ICOs were promoted in relativly closed forums and had little transparancy.

Today, not only did the regulator managed to track down some uncredibale ICOs leaders, but also the investors are more experienced and have much more offerings. This creates a very competitive market where ICO teams are trying to win their attention, while required to give more information and show more proficiency to qualify for an investment. The more experienced the investors will be the better the ICOs will become. Those who will adjust fast and understand the requirements of the ever changing market will suceed.

If you can reveal what is in your portfolio, which currency is your favorite?

R.M.: I definitely have bitcoin, but I always looking for the most intereating technologies and strategies in other top coins

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