Is Bitcoin Heading Towards Another Price Explosion?
Bitcoin is up over 15 percent in the recent days, and there are clear signs that the bull run is back. Earlier today, it rose to the highest point in two months, touching $9,767 before falling back to $9,010. As of writing this piece, BTC is trading at $9,125 – roughly 6.65 percent drop from the intraday bullish signals. Having passed the $9,000 price point, analysts feel confident it’ll soon cross the next psychological barrier of $10,000 – boosting the phenomenal bitcoin momentum and triggering a bull phase.
Over the past four months, the currency has lost almost three quarters of its value; however, analysts believe that investors are back, and with more confidence due to varying factors. According to a study published by The Independent, bitcoin is heading towards another “price explosion”, which could break all previous records, including that of December 2017.
This positive forecast is based (partly) on the market activity that has seen a large increase in buy orders for the leading cryptocurrency. In fact, 90 percent of the recent market activity consists of buying orders which has put pressure on the cryptocurrency market – and the price shift is very likely. The talks of another price explosion are also driven by more institutional buyers and nations getting into cryptocurrencies.
Oleg Andreev (product architect at Chain) tweeted: “In a few weeks you will never be able to buy 1 bitcoin for less than $10K ever again.” Such optimistic predictions seem relatively modest when compared to the notes of several renowned figures within the market. Alistair Milne, the leading “bitcoin evangelist” believes that bitcoin will reach between $35,000 and $60,000 by 2020. And there are others who claim it to cross $250,000 by 2022.
When asked about the nosedive of bitcoin in early 2018, there are varying opinions. According to some of these enthusiasts, bitcoin’s depreciation was more of an act of market consolidation, and resulted out of regulatory fears. Investors had concerns about cryptocurrency regulations, and took it as a negative sign – leading the cryptocurrency to a 50 percent price drop.
However, there has been a strong realization that the right kind of regulatory support is vital to grow the industry, boost the cryptocurrencies, and protect the investors from frauds. This opinion is shared by almost global regulators, government leaders, and financial institutions. Recently, IMF chief also hinted towards the same, when she said that blockchain (technology behind bitcoin) could transform the way people save and make investment decisions.
These comments by Ms. Christine Lagarde led to an increase in the cryptocurrency market activity, and all leading digital currencies made major gains following that.
In fact, ethereum, ripple and bitcoin cash exceeded the gains of bitcoin.
While there is no general consensus on the type of regulations and the level of regulatory involvement, there is almost an agreement on the need to protect investors from fraud. If the regulatory concerns of the key markets are addressed, and investors feel more confident, it could bring in more pressure – and boost the market activity.