The long-existing, U.S. dollar-ruled financial system could come to an end amid challenges from a potential multiple-currency system, which includes digital currencies, according to an Aug. 14 research note by Dick Bove, noted senior research analyst at Odeon Capital Group LLC, a New York City-based investment bank.

• “The new currencies might be paper, metal or digital impulses,” Bove wrote. “The possibility of this happening can only be described as frightening, yet the probability is quite high.”
• This possible change to the world’s financial system was brought up after prices on gold and other precious metals moved higher.  
• The U.S. dollar has also been under attack from a number of flanks, such as China and Russia pushing for the renminbi to replace the dollar in international trade, as well as the rapid growth of the U.S. money supply. 
• Bove, who's been a Wall Street analyst for five decades, noted the recent bitcoin rally while discussing cryptocurrencies as an alternative to the dollar, saying,  “Anything can be used as a currency as long as enough people will accept it.”
• Yet, Bove concluded that, for now, gold is “a clear option” for investors to consider to protect themselves from the rising risks to the dollar system.