From a bullish take on the price of Bitcoin in 2020 to a new way to buy some of the leading crypto assets on Binance, here’s a look at some of the stories breaking in the world of crypto.
Bitcoin
Co-founder and managing partner of the crypto lending platform Nexo says Bitcoin may hit $50K or higher this year – a 580% increase from its current price of $7,391.
In a new interview on Bloomberg TV, Antoni Trenchev says his team believes BTC’s halving, which is set to happen in about four months, will be the catalyst.
“I think that very easily we could see Bitcoin going up to $50,000 by the end of this year. We have our analysts at Nexo crunching the numbers and doing very substantial research. And it is just a hell of a ride.
It’s the halving coming up, because the reward for miners are dropping. The last time this happened, Bitcoin rallied 4,000%. And it’s been an incredible asset. It’s uncorrelated to the overall market. It delivers systematic, asymmetric returns.”
Trenchev says he believes Bitcoin’s narrative has changed in the last few years. Instead of being the new form of cash, he says BTC is emerging as a digital form of gold.
“The initial idea was we’re going to pay for coffee with Bitcoin, but obviously that has failed to materialize. I think the narrative now that is much more persuasive is that Bitcoin is the new gold. And we see confirmation like the turmoil that we have this morning, Bitcoin is rallying on par with gold. And in terms just of sheer price action, if Bitcoin is the new gold and it just captures 10% of the total market cap of gold, which is around $8 trillion or $9 trillion, there will be Bitcoin at $50,000.”
Gold proponent and Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff says the leading cryptocurrency has no chance of competing with gold as a safe haven asset, despite the rise of both assets on Friday after President Trump’s missile strike in Iran.
“Heightened geopolitical risk has resulted in both gold and Bitcoin moving higher, but for different reasons. Gold is being bought by investors as a safe haven. Bitcoin is being bought by speculators betting that investors will buy it as a safe haven.”
A recent report by Charles Schwab found Millennials are the primary demographic interested in digital assets. It found Millennials are choosing to buy the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which is fully backed by BTC, instead of shares of Microsoft, Walt Disney, Netflix or Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
Ethereum, XRP, Binance Coin
Binance’s push to add more fiat trading pairs in 2020 is already starting to ripple out.
The leading crypto exchange just added a number of fiat-to-crypto pairs with the euro – the second most widely held reserve currency in the world.
In addition to Bitcoin, the exchange has paired the euro against Ethereum, XRP, Binance Coin and the stablecoins Binance USD and USDT.