Bitcoin pushed past the psychologically critical level of $10,000 on Saturday, a mark it briefly surpassed in September of 2019 before retracing to around $6,628 two months later.
On Saturday, the highly volatile cryptocurrency soared 3.5% to close at $10,100, according to data track CoinMarketCap. It has since dropped to $9,967 at time of publishing. The leading cryptocurrency is now up around 40% since the start of 2020, after recording its best January in the past seven years.
Its performance so far this year, marked by price jumps on the escalating tensions between the US and Iran, and the outbreak of the coronavirus, is cementing the cryptocurrency’s status as more than just a novelty bit of tech that emerged from the cypherpunk movement of the late 1980s, which promoted the use of cryptography to achieve privacy and security.
Says Michael Sonnenshein, managing director at Grayscale Investments, via Bloomberg,
“There’s certainly a narrative in the investment community that Bitcoin is solidifying its place as a store of value, a flight to safety, inflation hedge.”
After a bear market that has dogged Bitcoin since the start of 2018, Bloomberg Intelligence financial analyst Mike McGlone says this year’s outlook for Bitcoin continues to be favorable.
“Similar to gold, positive fundamentals should extend Bitcoin’s price appreciation.”
Although crypto supporters dampen moonshot predictions with words of caution about the high level of risk that comes with investing in Bitcoin, urging people to invest no more than they can afford to lose, Anthony Pompliano, partner at Morgan Creek Digital Assets, expects BTC to reach $100,000 by the end of 2021, while Vijay Ayyar, head of Asia at crypto exchange Luno, anticipates a retail rush into Bitcoin this May, coinciding with the upcoming Bitcoin halving event that will limit the new supply by slowing the rate of production of BTC by 50%.
Says Ayyar,
“I would conjecture most normal people are unaware of [Bitcoin,] and when the price starts running, the masses will come in as we’ve seen before. This is slated to happen in May 2020. So any price increase as we’re seeing, people have an eye on May for sure.”
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