2017 was the year when everybody knew about the potential of cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin. Though you may argue that the reason why Bitcoin’s price almost reached $20K that year was due to speculation, we can all agree that a lot has to be done in the industry in order to be widely adopted and accepted. In the next 12 months or so, Bitcoin along with the rest of the crypto market nosedived. Bitcoin lost more than 80% of its all-time high.
But the thing with Bitcoin is that it isn’t exactly the first time that Bitcoin had a massive correction. And today, Bitcoin was able to hit a new high for 2019. It was able to hit $8,905 before moving back. Now, many are asking when will Bitcoin be able to touch $9K or even $10K?
To give you a perspective, since the start of the year in January, Bitcoin’s market capitalization went up by as much as 137%. Majority of the gains happened in just the last three months. During the start of April, Bitcoin was trading at around $4,100.
The Same as 2017?
Could it be a repeat of 2017? During that year, Bitcoin started at $1,000. From January 2017 to May 2017, the price of Bitcoin was able to hit $2,300 which represents a 130% jump. Now, that is the exact number that we are currently having this year.
The reality is that this year is quite different from the past years. Though you have Bitcoin climbing up once again, you have to take into account that there is already the interest of institutional investors. You have the likes of Fidelity Investments that has been finalizing its plan to sell cryptocurrencies to institutional customers.
In addition to this, you have JP Morgan having their own version of JP Morgan Coin which is a blockchain based coin that is used internally. And not only that, JP Morgan strategists also mentioned that Bitcoin has an “intrinsic value”.
For Mati Greenspan, the senior market analyst at eToro, he said that “easier to spend means a greater use case”. David Tawil who is the President of ProChain Capital thinks that “It takes two to tango. The more merchants that accept crypto encourages more people to adopt it and use it”.
Is the Crypto Winter Really Over?
Now, many are asking if the crypto winter is really over. If you will look at the recent price movement on Bitcoin, whales have been involved. Also, Tawil mentioned that “This is still the thawing out from the crypto winter that was”. He added that “There still may be another pull back before we get to fundamentals truly taking over and speculators and frauds being expunged”.
The good news is that Bitcoin is now up. Now, what’s next for Bitcoin? Tom Lee believes that the next all-time high will happen in 2020. But in reality, nobody knows exactly what’s up. But as far as regulatory clarity is concerned, though there has been development in regulations, there is still a lot of work that has to be done. Until now, cryptocurrencies are still in a grey area whether or not these cryptocurrencies are a security or a commodity. Only Bitcoin and Ethereum have been considered commodities.
