Explosive Crypto Growth Days Are Over, Ethereum Co-Founder Says

• Blockchain growth and adoption is already approaching its "ceiling", or maximum potential, Ethereum co-founder Vitaiik Buterin said.
• Buterin added those interested in cryptocurrencies need to get involved in a more in-depth manner.
• Crypto users should be encouraged to explore "real applications" and the "real economic activity" associated with digital currencies, he noted.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently told Bloomberg the blockchain industry has already experienced explosive, or exponential, growth and “there isn’t an opportunity for yet another 1,000 times growth in anything in this space anymore.”

Blockchain Growth Approaching "Ceiling"

Buterin added that the “average educated person” has heard of distributed ledger technology (DLT) by now at least once. He also remarked:

“The blockchain space is getting to the point where there’s a ceiling in sight.” Vitalik Buterin

As such, we can no longer expect more significant “growth in anything in [this] space,” Buterin said. Going on to explain the growth and adoption of bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, Buterin added that marketing by the blockchain community during the first six or seven years of their existence helped people become more aware of them.

According to the Russian-Canadian programmer, the marketing strategy that has been used so far to encourage people to use digital currencies is “getting close to hitting a dead end.” Those who are now genuinely interested in cryptos need to get involved in exploring the “real applications of [their] real economic activity,” Buterin noted.

Notably, the blockchain developer’s comments come at a time in which the Ethereum blockchain’s native token, ether (ETH), had dropped below the $200 mark. Ether is currently trading at $201according to CryptoCompare data, and its value has now declined well over 70% this year.

Cryptocurrency Prices Decline Further

Bitcoin, the flagship cryptocurrency, has also plummeted and is trading slightly below $6.400 at press time. This, after briefly surpassing the $7,000 mark on August 28. Most market analysts have attributed the recent (and further) drop in cryptocurrency prices to reports claiming Goldman Sachs postponed its plans to launch a crypto trading desk. The financial institution's CFO has since then revealed the Goldman Sachs is still working on it.

As CryptoGlobe reported, Stephen Innes, the chief investment officer at SFG Alternatives, remarked that Goldman Sachs delaying the launch of its crypto trading platform would be “a huge blow” to the digital currency market.

Innes said that cryptocurrencies will remain “thinly traded” because of the lack of proper “regulatory oversight” and the “intense, intense scrutiny” over fraudulent activity associated with them. It is also unclear whether bitcoin and other cryptos are currencies or commodities, and if they’re supposed to be a store of value, they’re doing a “very poor” job of retaining value, Innes argued.