The Swiss financial UBS holding again came out to criticize bitcoin, while acknowledging that in the future bitcoin will be able to replace fiat currencies, but currently bitcoin does not fit this role.

UBS, one of the largest European banks, published a report, which notes that the characteristics of bitcoin do not allow it to become a rival to money. Bitcoin "falls short of criteria that need to be satisfied to be considered money," Bloomberg reports.

"Fixed supply and unusual demand dynamics make the system susceptible to high price volatility, in turn making it difficult for bitcoin to step into the role of money or to be a viable new asset class."

At the same time, UBS recognizes that bitcoin will be able to replace US dollars in the future, if its price reaches a level of $213,000, and the computing power of the network increases significantly.

"Our findings suggest that bitcoin, in its current form, is too unstable and limited to become a viable means of payment for global transactions or a mainstream asset class," the report found.

Previously, representatives of UBS have repeatedly criticized cryptocurrencies. Thus, in mid-December 2017, when bitcoin was trading at its peak, the board chairman of UBS Axel Weber noted that bitcoin cannot be effectively used either as a means of payment, as a means of accumulation, or as a measure of value because of its high volatility and insufficient scalability. And in November 2017, Mark Haefele, global investment director of UBS Wealth Management, warned that cryptocurrencies were too often used in illegal activities.

“All it would take would be one terrorist incident in the U.S. funded by bitcoin for the U.S. regulator to much more seriously step in and take action, he said. “That’s a risk, an unquantifiable risk, bitcoin has that another currency doesn’t."