The end of the year is approaching fast, which means analysts and investors are making predictions for the year ahead. Cryptocurrency has been a major theme of late, so it’s only natural that we’re starting to get in a growing number of Bitcoin price predictions. It seems most of those who follow cryptocurrency expect it to continue soaring next year, with some predictions putting the price in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Bitcoin now falling after hitting a ceiling
Bitcoin prices reached near $20,000 over the weekend, but since then, they’ve dropped to around $18,000. CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index placed the price at around $17,450 on Tuesday, while the prices of other cryptocurrencies have soared. Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash reached new record highs on Tuesday, according to prices from CoinMarketCap, and the top ten cryptocurrencies according to market cap are up by at least 6% to more than $630 billion in total.
Based on these price movements, we’re starting to see a few Bitcoin price predictions suggesting that we’re starting to see a rotation out of Bitcoin and into other cryptocurrencies. Chart technicians are putting the knowledge and experience they’ve learned from reading stock charts to work for the cryptocurrency market, and in a post for CoinDesk, Omkar Godbole warns that Bitcoin is now risking a bearish reversal.
Rotation out of Bitcoin, into other cryptocurrencies
He explained that exchanges which are offering Bitcoin Cash/ Bitcoin pairs are seeing a sudden surge in volumes, which does seem to back up the rotation he’s been writing about recently. He noted that the rotation from Bitcoin into other cryptocurrencies is mostly in line with the bullish cross on the cryptocurrency charts.
On the Bitcoin chart according to Coinbase’s prices, he noted a pattern referred to as a “hanging man” candle, which is a bearish reversal which forms on top of an uptrend. A weak closing price under $18,200 would confirm this reversal, although the five-day and 10-day moving averages are currently favoring bulls.
Godbole also said in his Bitcoin price predictions that the downside could be temporary because investors might start taking profits in the other cryptocurrencies and then put some of them right back into Bitcoin. He sees trendline support at $17,500, but he also warned that if Bitcoin closes under that level, it could fall all the way to $13,500, which was the low on Dec. 12. However, he added that if the price moves above $18,822, which is the five-day moving average, Bitcoin could be heading back up to $20,000.
Most Bitcoin price predictions are much higher
While he was looking in the near term, most of the extremely high Bitcoin price predictions are pointing to levels that are impossible for most to imagine right now. Standpoint Research founder Ronnie Moas told CNBC this past weekend that he sees the cryptocurrency skyrocketing to the $300,000 to $400,000 level.
He noted that one of his big Bitcoin price predictions has already come to pass, as the cryptocurrency’s value has skyrocketed 500% since his July prediction of $5,000, so his new prediction calls for another 500% increase. When he called $5,000, Bitcoin’s price was only at $2,600.
Moas is basing his Bitcoin price predictions on the fact that there can never be any more than 21 million Bitcoin, which he describes as a “mind-boggling supply and demand imbalance.” He predicts that two years from now, 300 million people will be “trying to get their hands on a few million Bitcoin.”
If $300,000 seems like a stretch, then what about $100,000? Hong Kong trader and managing director of Octagon Strategy gave his recent Bitcoin price predictions to CNBC, telling Squawk Box that he wouldn’t be surprised if it hits $100,000 by the end of next year.
Here’s what it would take for it to reach $60,000
If Bitcoin price predictions in the hundreds of thousands of dollars sound impossible within the next 12 months, then investor and analyst Tai Lopez has explained what it would take for the cryptocurrency to reach “only” $60,000. According to CCN, Lopez said that if the millionaires in the world allocated just 1% of their portfolios to Bitcoin, the price could hit $60,000 “in the mid-term.”
Billionaire investor Mike Novogratz seems to be on board with that, as he said recently that the price could pass $40,000 by the end of the year. He based his prediction on the entry of institutional investors and the traditional finance industry via Bitcoin futures. Both institutional investors and retail traders showed interest in these futures through the Chicago Board Options Exchange.
“Outrageous” Bitcoin price predictions
Saxo Bank’s Bitcoin price predictions in its “Outrageous Predictions” report also calls for a $60,000 price—and a $1 trillion market cap—before the end of next year. However, the bank also predicts that the price will tank to $1,000. The bank predicted that Russia and China will “engineer a crash” to turn the focus away from Bitcoin. Saxo also suggested that China and Russia will create their own state-backed cryptocurrencies, which will work better as payment systems and halt the entire cryptocurrency crash, resulting in the predicted price crash.
Saxo Bank isn’t the only one predicting that central banks will finally get their hooks into cryptos next year. In a post for CoinDesk, former South African central banker Eugene Etsebeth said he believes 2018 will be the year central banks actually start buying cryptocurrencies.
He explained that a major turning point for the G7 central banks will be when the market cap of Bitcoin surpasses the value of all the special drawing rights that have been created and allocated, which he estimates at about $291 million. He believes central bankers will realize that their own countries’ currencies are starting to devalue against cryptocurrencies, and as a result, he predicts that they will then “be forced to alter their foreign reserve weightings and eventually include a basket of cryptocurrencies.”
It seems pretty safe to say that almost everyone is giving their own Bitcoin price predictions, but as of right now, it’s simply impossible to slap a value on the cryptocurrency or estimate what it will be worth even a month from now.
