The stock market’s recent success could be partly attributed to the tremendous rise in cryptocurrency values, said emerging and frontier markets expert Mark Mobius.

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The founder of Mobius Capital Partners spoke to CNBC PRO Talk on Wednesday and said that the stock market was being propped up by investors who had managed to make themselves neat profits from the cryptocurrency trade and were feeling emboldened to take more risks in the stock markets. He said these investors were “feeling rich” and were, therefore, willing to “throw money in the market and even gamble”.

Mobius’ comments come at a time when despite the COVID-19 pandemic, stock markets across the world have been seeing a steady rise, if not surpassing record highs in the past few weeks. With regard to bitcoin, it was trading at around $55,100 as of Wednesday morning in Europe. This comes after it went above $61,000 — an all-time high — earlier this week.

“This is probably one of the reasons why the market is doing so well,” Mobius said, while also adding, “People who have bought, let us say bitcoin at $1 or $10, are now feeling rich.”

But this correlation could also spell trouble for investors if the cryptocurrencies crashed, the author of ‘The Inflation Myth and the Wonderful World of Deflation’ said.

“I hope and pray that the bitcoin prices do not crash because if they do, I think we are going to see a major market correction,” Mobius added. A crash in bitcoin prices could hit the market badly, he explained.

Mobius’s comments to CNBC echo the sentiments he shared in an interview last week. In it, he said that he feared that a decline in bitcoin prices could hit tech stocks very badly.

“I think the relationship between bitcoin prices and the tech market is very close. So, watch that indicator,” he had said.

(Edited by : Ajay Vaishnav)