BITCOIN PRICE ‘WON’T STOP’ AT $30K AS REACTION TO DIFFICULTY BEGINS

Story by: ANJA VAN OOSTERHOUT

2018 DIFFICULTY LOW CAN PROPEL BITCOIN TO $31K

In an ongoing debate on social media, well-known figures from the Bitcoin $10224.1 +0.08% community argue that BTC/USD is just as the start of its next parabolic run.

The basis for the optimism is a chart by the Twitter analyst PlanB, which has forecast a $30,000 Bitcoin price for 2021.

“When we pass 20k, I don’t see us stopping at 30…,” Lightning Torch organizer Hodlonaut summarized about Bitcoin’s likely trajectory.

PlanB’s chart takes BTC/USD price and plots its percentage increase versus the previous low in network mining difficulty.

Difficulty refers to the complexity of equations miners need to solve in order to validate Bitcoin transactions. The higher the difficulty, the more implied interest there is in Bitcoin mining.

Difficulty has made consistent gains throughout 2019, having spent the second half of last year in retreat as markets fell. Bottoming out in December, the metric’s U-turn was followed in April by a fresh Bitcoin price bull run.

For PlanB, such behavior is consistent with historical moves for Bitcoin, and should mean current levels around $10,000 are just the tip of the iceberg.