Cryptocurrencies are quickly becoming a preferred alternative to gold for people who don’t trust traditional fiat currencies, according to Aswath Damodaran, a professor of finance at the NYU’s Stern School of Business.

A specialist in corporate finance and equity valuation, Damodaran is often cited by media as the “Dean of Valuation” on Wall Street.

It’s against this backdrop that the finance expert recently remarked that cryptocurrencies could eventually replace gold or emerge as an alternative to legal currencies issued by central authorities.

“If you don’t trust paper currency, historically what you’ve done is you dumped paper currencies [and] you bought gold,” he said in the interview.

Damodaran told CNBC:

“Cryptocurrencies have taken the role of gold at least for younger investors, because they don’t trust paper currencies.”

As reported by CoinDesk, the price of bitcoin surpassed the value of an ounce of gold for the first time in March, and has steadily traded above this mark for much of the time since.

Image via Aswath Damodaran/YouTube