Google Trends has found that the phase ‘buy bitcoin with credit card’ is on the rise as the digital currency increases to new heights.
This continuing interest in bitcoin comes at a time when it is experiencing record highs. In this year alone it has risen in value by nearly 10-fold, an incredible feat for a digital currency that has overcome its fair share of hurdles along the way. Over the past few weeks its price has maintained an upward trajectory, entering the $9,000 barrier over the weekend. According to CoinMarketCap, it’s now within touching distance of hitting the $10,000 milestone for the first time, at $9,966, with a market cap amounting to $166.5 billion. No doubt as the digital currency continues to rise even higher there will be an increasing number of buy bitcoin with credit card searches taking place.
Yet, regardless of this critics of the digital currency remain. In an interview with CNBC on Monday, Ken Griffin, Citadel hedge manager, said that ‘these bubbles tend to end in tears.’
Whereas, Mitchell Goldberg, head of ClientFirst Strategy, said to clients that he remains cautious of it, believing that it is similar to the dot com bubble, adding that ‘we’ve entered the final and stupidest part of the bull market.’
Despite this, though, interest in the market is increasing at a rapid rate. So much so, that the combined crypto market is now worth a record $309.9 billion, making it more valuable than Visa, at $254 billion, and the Bank of America, at $277.3 billion.
Billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz is of the opinion that bitcoin will rise to $10,000 before the end of the year, which looks on course to take place. However, speaking on CNBC’s ‘Fast Money‘, Novogratz said on Monday that the digital currency could ‘easily’ reach $40,000 by the end of 2018.
He said:
Bitcoin could be at $40,000 at the end of 2018. It easily could. Ethereum, which I think just touched $500 or is getting close, could be triple where it is as well.
This is a more bullish price target than the prediction from Ronnie Moas. The analyst and founder of Standpoint Research believes that bitcoin will see a price of $14,000 in 2018, after revising it from his initial $11,000 figure.
Interestingly, Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Gatecoin’s marketing chief, thinks that despite the booming increase in bitcoin’s value, it remains ‘undervalued.’ Speaking in a televised interview with Bloomberg, Thomas Glucksmann, said:
If you look at the long-term potential of the technology in the next 10, 20, 30 years, $10,000 is cheap in my opinion.