A fresh report from Forbes has covered the recent speech by Chicago Mayor – and former Chief of Staff for US President Barack Obama – Rahm Emanuel. The subject of the speech was Chicago’s FinTech movement, and as such, Emanuel spent a fair share of time discussing cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.



Emanuel: The trend lines for cryptocurrency adoption are ”affirmative”



Specifically, Emanuel noted that all signs point towards that cryptocurrency will inevitably emerge as a major factor to be reckoned with.



Moreover, Emanuel also went on to argue that cryptocurrency can play a crucial role in everything from third world countries with undependable fiat currencies, to facilitating trade within debts markets.



This becomes especially obvious, Emanuel argued, as established structures change and nation-states recede. Instead, it will become increasingly important to maintain global transactions.



”Nation states are falling apart, or receding. City states are emerging, so the political structures we all grew up under are changing. One day, somebody is going to figure out – whether that’s Argentina, ten years from now, five years from now – how to use cryptocurrencies to stay alive when they’re facing a financial crisis, and then you’re going to find out this moment has arrived.”



In addition to this, however, Emanuel also ceded that he is not too well-versed on the subject of cryptocurrencies. Nevertheless, that has not stopped him from realizing its future potential.



”The trend lines are affirmative for its future. I don’t know if that’s ten years, and I don’t know if that’s twenty years, but it’s affirmative. I don’t know what it is. I know it’s an alternative way to trade, and therefore, I gotta learn about it, and I gotta be honest, as mayor, it’s not the top 100 things I would have to learn about.”



Cryptocurrency sector could ”easily” become trillion dollar market



Furthermore, Emanuel also argued that cryptocurrency will make even more of an impact with younger generations, joking that although he did not hold any cryptocurrency, his ”kids will figure out how to get their hands on it.”



Emanuel also noted that cryptocurrency is currently ”obviously the hottest space” within the FinTech sector. Moreover, the event at which Emanuel spoke was set up David Carman, the co-founder of FinTank – Chicago’s ”global FinTech hub”.



Carman himself recounted the previous bear markets experienced by the cryptocurrency market, and noted that all of these has ultimately ended in yet another bull run.



”I think the smallest bull market, after a major bear market, was, from the low, I went up twentyfold,” Carman said. As such, he also suggested that the cryptocurrency market could ”easily become a trillion-dollar market, and that’s just one FinTech sector.”

