Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto market aren’t exactly looking great this year. Different experts have a different take on what’s next for the crypto world. Bitcoin in 2017 went all the way to near $20,000, and to think that it started last year at around $1,000. However, things are different in 2018. Regulatory changes, scams, hacking incidents, and hard fork among many others have caused the price of Bitcoin to plunge. Today, Bitcoin slumped close to $3,000 which is a level that is unseen since September last year.
As of the moment, Bitcoin is at $3,254.33. It has been a tough four to five weeks for Bitcoin. For the last few months, Bitcoin was actually stable at around $6,200 to $6,400. But after the Bitcoin Cash hard fork, things went south. It was coupled by the regulatory changes imposed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s implementation targeted ICOs and even celebrities that endorsed its tokens.
Adoption is a Long Way to Go?
Since its peak, around $730 billion has been wiped out completely from the crypto market. In addition to this, adoption is yet to happen. Though there is definitely interest on the part of institutional investors, it seems that they are still waiting for the right time to enter and commit to cryptos completely.
One of the reasons could be because of the hesitation of regulators as well on the crypto market. Jay Clayton mentioned that the SEC is only going to be comfortable approving a Bitcoin ETF only if there are changes in the market. A few months ago, the agency rejected a number of Bitcoin ETF applications citing the possibility of price manipulation. According to Clayton, exchanges don’t make use of surveillance tools that can monitor price manipulation.
Is Recovery Ever Going to Happen?
The question on a lot of people’s mind today is if recovery is still going to happen? A crypto trader with the alias of “The Crypto Dog” thinks that it is risky to go for short-term trend. The trader mentioned that “BTC lowest daily close year to date. Is there still a chance of recovery before more lows? Well, maybe. But I am not betting on it”.
It isn’t just Bitcoin that is experiencing such lows. In the past six months, ERC20 tokens fell by around 50% to 80%. The same thing happened to Ethereum and XRP. If you will look at the current chart, Bitcoin has been maintaining $3,000 to $4,000 for more than three weeks.
According to Barry Silbert who is the founder and the CEO of venture capital firm Digital Currency Group, companies are already pulling the plug on the crypto sector. He said that “We’ve seen half a dozen fundraising deals fall apart over the past month after the lead pulled out. All is not well in crypto VC investor land. Good time to remind founders that a signed term sheet does not equal cash in the bank”.
It is not far from the possibility that Bitcoin is still going to slump further and even hit below $3K this year. However, there are still crypto believers out there such as Tom Lee who believes that Bitcoin’s real value is much higher than its current price.
