Bitcoin has risen to meteoric highs, far surpassing any initial estimations of the currency’s future worth. What first started as a small currency project for geeks and nerds has since become the go-to denomination for virtual money investment. While the value dips and rises like any sort of major currency, we may see a $10000 Bitcoin valuation in the near future.
Just a few days ago, Bitcoin’s valuation was around $8000, but yesterday the price of the currency skyrocketed to $9584. This sudden increase means that we could see a $10000 bitcoin valuation before the end of the year — perhaps even by Christmas .
The past few weeks has been a wild ride for Bitcoin investors, as the currency was valued at just $5500 two weeks ago as cryptocurrency advocates, who were anticipating changes that could make the bitcoin’s blockchain size larger, put a hold on their plans. This new news has led to a large increase in value for the virtual currency, and it continues to grow at an unexpectedly rapid rate.
This huge rise in value may signal that investors are becoming more and more confident in the virtual currency’s viability and future growth. Billionaire Mike Novogratz, an investor who has recently created a $500 million hedge fund devoted to digital currency, anticipated that Bitcoin would reach this milestone by April 2018. He has since revised his prediction, saying that we would see a $10000 Bitcoin valuation by the end of 2017. The fact that Bitcoin may reach this milestone around four months sooner than he expected means good things for this relatively new form of investment.
Novogratz has a major stake in Bitcoin, so it makes sense that he would be optimistic with public predictions about the currency’s future. He’s not alone in his predictions, however, as Mark Cuban has recently told Business Insider that Bitcoin will rise in value as long as it “continues to function more as a collectible than an actual currency.”
There’s currently no telling how far this rise of Bitcoin valuation will go. Tom Strat, managing partner and researcher at Fundstrat Global Advisors, anticipated that the currency will reach a value of $11,500 by April of 2018. This is a huge increase from the $6000 estimate he made for the same period back just a few months ago in August.
At this current moment, Bitcoin owners have no real reason to sell as long as the popularity of the currency increases — and most of them realize that. LendEDU, an investing resource, asked hundreds of Americans at what point they would sell all of their Bitcoins, and the answer was astronomically high:
“On average, respondents reported that they would be willing to sell all of their Bitcoin investment at $196,165.79 per Bitcoin. At the time of the survey completion, the price per Bitcoin was $6,490.”
It’s clear from this data that investor confidence in the currency is sky-high, and this recent spike in Bitcoin’s value may just be the beginning of a continued rise. The number of investors in bitcoin continues to grow at a rapid rate that outpaces recent growth.
CNBC has reported that just between Wednesday and Friday of last week, Coinbase (the largest exchange of Bitcoin worldwide) added more than 100,000 new accounts, making their total user count in excess of 13 million. It’s clear that the popularity of Bitcoin shows no sign of slowing down, and that despite drastic changes in the valuation of the currency from week to week, it will main the go-to virtual investment for investors.
