The year has started off on a positive note for the cryptocurrency universe after a terrible period in 2018 that saw the price of Bitcoin (BTC) fall from highs of $16,000 USD to a quarter the price today.
Regulatory guidelines are being put in place, institutional investment is trickling in, and blockchain development teams are tirelessly working on the projects. The overall mood around the communities has improved immensely the number of cryptizens (crypto citizens) has increased since the start of the year.
Personalities from within and without the field have given their predictions of Bitcoin by the end of 2019 and the near future. The figures sampled across the various personalities in this article range their predictions between $1000 USD to over $50,000 USD.
Mike Novogratz
Zhao Dong
John McAfee
Tom Lee
Willy Woo
JP Morgan reports
Before we get to the predictions, let’s explore a brief history on the volatile price of Bitcoin (BTC) in the past few years. The decade old cryptocurrency experienced a wild ride in 2017 as the price soared from $1000 USD in January to above $10,000 in November. BTC quickly reached an all-time high (ATH) price of $20,000 USD in December, a month later. However, the price of BTC plummeted back to $10,000 USD in less than a month as the gains realized in 2017 were quickly wiped off during 2018.
Chart showing the price of Bitcoin (BTC) since January 2017
BTC however has remained the top cryptocurrency during its arduous times and currently leads the horde with a dominance of 50.15% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization. Bitcoin currently trades at $40107.53 USD according to Coinmarketcap.
The cryptocurrency investors and enthusiasts remain optimistic of an upcoming bullish run on the coin in the coming months. Businessmen, technocrats and other experts such as Elon Musk, Micheal Novogratz and Tim Draper have praised Bitcoin’s genius publicly bringing their followers to light with the revolutionary technology.
Furthermore, 2019 promises to be a big year for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as major development await to be launched such as Bakkt. The Microsoft and Starbucks backed company is building an open and seamless global network to enable you to buy, sell, store and spend digital assets simply, safely and efficiently. Backed has partnered with 12 global companies and raised over $185 million USD for development.
Bitcoin halving is in less than 420 days and a common tend emerging from the last two halvings shows a potential bullish run in the near future. A year before the halving, prices of BTC enters an accumulation period that is followed by a strong bullish momentum as seen on the chart below.
Bitcoin halving in May 2020 signals a strong bullish momentum in 2019
The billionaire made his predictions on the price of Bitcoin late last year stating the coin could reach highs of $10,000 by the end of March and cross its ATH price of $20,000 by the end of the year. The Galaxy Digital founder believes institutional investment from firms such as Fidelity and Bakkt will be key to the surge in BTC’s price.
Michael Novogratz
Another bullish prediction on BTC is from one of China’s largest Bitcoin OTC traders, Zhao Dong. He predicts the price of Bitcoin to soar to $50,000 USD by the end of 2019. Furthermore, the Chinese billionaire has called on BTC believers to HODL on the coin while others “don’t pay attention.” He said,
“For most people, if they don’t pay attention to Bitcoin now, they won’t pay much attention to most of the time, so for them, only how many tens of thousands of bitcoins will break them will be noticed again. If you and I believe in the future of Bitcoin, so it is best to hold as much as possible when nobody cares.”
The creator of the McAfee antivirus and cryptocurrency influencer, John McAfee, is strongly bullish on the price of BTC. McAfee wrote on twitter that he will be revising his predictions of Bitcoin from $500,000 USD to $1 million USD by 2020. In 2017, his call on BTC to cross $7,000 USD by the end of the year was well surpassed giving him much credibility on his future predictions.
John McAfee
The ex-Chief Equity Strategist JP Morgan, and Co-founder and head of research of Fundstrat, Tom Lee made a bold claim that the price is set to hit 35,000 USD. He further said there remains a probability of the coin reaching a maximum price of $64,000 with the minimum price set at $20,000 USD. Tom believes the price of BTC directly correlates with the break-even cost of mining the coin.
Not all predictions, however, point to a rosy future of the price of Bitcoin as some people expect the price to drop below $2,500 USD in the coming months. The failure of the SEC to provide a ruling on Bitcoin ETFs at the start of the year is a big step back for the progress of Bitcoin adoption. Furthermore, governments and regulatory authorities around the world such as China are keeping stringent laws on cryptocurrencies which may negatively affect the price BTC.
Here are some of the bearish predictions on the price of BTC in 2018:
The founder of Woobull.com predicts an upcoming bearish momentum in Bitcoin’s price as we head into Q2 2019. Willy expects the price of Bitcoin to bottom in the coming months before entering an accumulation period for the rest of the year.
“All our blockchain indicators remain bearish. NVT, NVTS, MVRV, BNM, NVM. They are experimental but have served to make very correct calls to date, even when traditional on-exchange indicators were reading to the contrary.” – Willy Woo
Reuters reported the predictions by JP Morgan analysts who predict the bear run to continue and push the price of Bitcoin (BTC) below $1,260 USD in the coming months. The analysts explained their predictions saying,
“Even in extreme situations like a recession or monetary crises, there are additional liquid and less-complicated instruments for transacting, investing and hedging rather than cryptocurrencies.”
The current developments in the Bitcoin community and growth in the adoption rate offers a bullish signal on the price of BTC going forward. The technical indicators are signaling an upcoming bullish run and with more people understanding the need for digital currencies by the day. While past performance is not a great indicator for future price, the fundamentals underlying Bitcoin may well see it soar in the near future to $20,000 USD crossing its all-time high price.
*Do you think Bitcoin faces an expected soar in its price in 2019? If so, will BTC break its all-time high by the end of the year? Share your thoughts and ideas on the future of BTC’s price with us!
(Images from Coinmarketcap, Shutterstock and Bitcoin block Halving)