A Bubble or a Sign of Better Things to Come for 2018? Bitcoin Peaks near $18,000

2017 has been a solid year for Bitcoin and it seems likely that the cryptocurrency is going to finish strong for this year. The cryptocurrency started just below $1,000 just last year. But just after 12 months, on December 12, Bitcoin has reached $17,801.94.

The price chart analysis for Bitcoin is quite optimistic as experts are expecting Bitcoin to even push towards the $20,000 mark.

So what could this mean for 2018? Is it an impending bubble waiting to burst? Should investors be worried? Or does it mean more gains for the coming year?

In a poll conducted between November 9-November 13, 77% of Bitcoin investors are quite optimistic that Bitcoin’s price for 2018 will grow even more. Because of the optimistic outlook on BTC, it is more likely that there are 75% more investors that are planning to increase their investment in Bitcoin for the coming year.

On the other hand, around 31.5% of the respondents have insinuated their plan to sell at least some of their bitcoins by 2018. However, a solid 40% are looking to hold on to what they currently have.

What Could Possibly Affect Bitcoin’s Price for 2018?

LendEDU have mentioned that regulation could potentially help stabilize the price of Bitcoin in the coming months. On the other hand, excessive regulatory efforts would most likely alienate some investors due to the fact that it is in conflict with some of Blockchain technology’s core principles.

For some analyst such as David Drake, founder of LDJ Capital, he mentioned that the reason why Bitcoin is going to reach $20,000 by 2018 is due to the limited supply of the cryptocurrency. With a 21 million cap and only 4.3 million in current supply, the rise of Bitcoin’s price seemed inevitable considering the demand for the cryptocurrency.

However, a lot of market analysts are prone to revise their forecast due to the lack of firm measure to Bitcoin’s valuation. Ronnie Moas, the founder of Standpoint Research, changed his 2018 BTC price outlook to $11,000 from $7,500 in his initial prediction. After less than a month, he then revised the amount to $14,000. However, by December, Moas revised it for the third time and speculated the price of Bitcoin to hit $20,000 by 2018.

And why did he change his mind to have an optimistic view of Bitcoin’s price for next year? This is due to the fact that Bitcoin’s market cap is at $130 billion compared to $200 trillion that is in gold, bonds, stocks, and cash.

There are also expected short-term developments that can somewhat positively affect the price of Bitcoin including Square’s support for bitcoin payments via mobile. In addition to this, CME Group has a plan to launch future trading for the cryptocurrency.

Given the bullish forecast on Bitcoin, some experts such as Tom Lee, managing partner at Fundstrat Global Advisors, believe that there could also be wild crashes with up to 50% corrections which can make investing quite difficult but exciting at the same time.