Could bitcoin rocket back to $20,000?
Story by: Courtney Goldsmith
Bitcoin’s price hovered around the $8,000 mark today after dropping yesterday on the news that yet another tech giant was banning crypto adverts on its platform, but some analysts say it could rocket back up to $20,000 this year.
Having fallen from more than $13,000 at the start of the year, Jordan Hiscott, chief trader at Ayondo Markets, said the “halcyon days” of 2017, when bitcoin climbed nearly 2,000 per cent, “seem long gone”.
“In my view, this could be the situation for at least six months,” Hiscott said, basing his prediction on the liquidation of the Mt Gox exchange in Japan, and the appointed trustee handling the bankruptcy who has already sold around $400m worth of bitcoin and bitcoin cash.
Read more: Bitcoin drops to a five-week low below $8,000
Other analysts are still expecting the cryptocurrency to rebound, however.
Matthew Newton, analyst at eToro, said his long-term outlook for the rest of 2018 and beyond is positive as the crypto market still has a long way to go before it is fully developed.
“We expect the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to climb higher this year, though we may see some short-term volatility as investors respond to market news such as regulatory changes.”
Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at ThinkCoin, pointed out that negative news stories like Twitter‘s advertisement ban are starting to have less of an impact on bitcoin’s price.
“It appears that the industry has become immune to these kind of developments. Most of the investors that we are talking to only want to buy at current price.”
Aslam is very optimistic about bitcoin’s price over the next year, predicting a bear market over the next three months that transforms into a bull run.
“I think it is by no means naive to think that by the end of this year we could see the bitcoin price crossing the 20K mark again,” he said.
“Bitcoin’s biggest strength has always been its resilience. No matter how many times it seems to slide, it always bounces back – so we can expect it to soon rise if previous data is any indicator,” added Callum Blanchard, cryptocurrency data specialist at CPPF.
“The projected online popularity, trade volume and market cap all reveal that bitcoin remains fiercely popular. So while the current slope is downwards, expect the price to bounce back soon – even passing $9,000 per coin by the end of May if predictions are accurate,” Blanchard said.
Cryptocurrency expert Andrew Pritchard, the blockchain managing director at the 10x Growth Account, added that while bitcoin is currently at a crossroads, the six-month view is “very, very bullish” as consumers enter the market through easier routes, such as Coinbase and Barclays’ collaboration on faster payment methods.
Original story: http://www.cityam.com/283021/could-bitcoin-rocket-back-20000-they-halcyon-days-over
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