Fintech Experts Expect Bitcoin (BTC) To Rally By 80%
According to a report/informal study conducted by Finder.com.au, a popular media outlet centered around Australia, a number of so-called “fintech experts” believe that Bitcoin (BTC) will do rather well for itself in the upcoming eleven months.
Per statements conveyed by the panel to Finder, they collectively (average) believe that BTC will breach a valuation of just a tad under $7,000 by year’s end. The most optimistic panelist was Ben Ritchie, the chief operating officer of Digital Capital Management, a blockchain-friendly investment management consortium, who claimed that Bitcoin could reach $9,500 as 2020 rolls around.
While he didn’t exactly back his prediction, which would see the cryptocurrency rally by 180% from current levels, Ritchie drew attention to a number of industry trends that consumers should keep their eyes on for 2019. The first is the decoupling of cryptocurrencies, like Ethereum, XRP, and the like, from Bitcoin. Ritchie didn’t divulge whether he expects for BTC to outperform its counterparts on the lower rungs of the ever-extending cryptocurrency ladder, but assuming his company’s diverse outlook, probably not.
The second is the impact that the price action of legacy markets will have over cryptocurrencies. He didn’t explicitly state how a rally or collapse in the S&P 500, for example, would affect the broader digital asset market. Interestingly, however, players like Travis Kling, the chief investment officer at L.A.-based Ikigai, believes that the U.S. Federal Reserve’s recent decision to not impose a policy rate hike will be an extremely positive catalyst for decentralized, immutable, non-censorable, secure, deflationary, and non-sovereign currency, like Bitcoin, in the months and years to come.
Lastly, the Digital Capital Management C-suite member drew attention to Wall Street’s arrival into this asset class, especially as Bakkt and Fidelity Investments launch their crypto-centric products in the near future. Unlike Jeff “Dollar Vigilante” Berwick, who believes that institutional forays into this market in early-2019 will absolutely “explode” the crypto industry, Ritchie surprisingly stated that he doesn’t expect many from the traditional world of investing to down the red pill just yet.
This recent survey conducted by Finder comes after Bitwise Asset Management, a San Francisco-based crypto investment services provider, and ETF Trends, a finance/business-centric media portal, issued a similar poll, but with slightly different parameters.
According to a Bitwise press release which debriefed the survey, 55% of 150 financial advisors surveyed believed that BTC would appreciate in value in the next five years, with predictions averaging out to $17,570. 22% of the 150 noted that they plan to either commence investing their clients’ capital into cryptocurrencies or to bolster their already-existing holdings in the coming year.
Crypto Pundits Beg To Differ
While there are some undying optimists in this budding industry that would corroborate the $7,000 prediction of sorts, some are skeptical that the flagship cryptocurrency will make it that far by year’s end.
Fred Wilson, a leading venture capitalist that has become quite enamored with cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies, explained in a blog post released January 1st that BTC is unlikely to post notable gains this year, as the bottoming process is still festering. More recently, former Wall Street hotshot Mike Novogratz, the founder of Galaxy Digital, commented that there’s a chance that the crypto market, Bitcoin included, won’t “head north” for at least a few more months.
Even social metrics have purportedly begun to look bearish. According to Murad Mahmudov, a Princeton graduate turned crypto crusader and hedge fund hopeful, tweets regarding the cryptocurrency have reached 2014 levels, lower than any point in 2016.
Explaining the importance of this statistic, Mahmudov remarked that it’s almost as if “nothing has changed,” adding that this is an “absolute disaster for the price in the medium-term.” He noted that this accentuates how there are “far fewer people who care about decentralized, sovereign, uninflatable currency” than it may seem from the surface, and how little effect 2017’s parabolic run-up had on this community’s size.
Title Image Courtesy of Descryptive.com Via Flickr
