What is the future of bitcoin in 2018

@SergeenkovAndrey Sergeenkov

Cryptocurrency analyst. Founder and editor at btcpeers.com

Knowing the bitcoin exchange rate for 2019 will allow you to plan investments in cryptocurrency and extract maximum profit from them. What price for bitcoin can we expect in 2019? What do the experts say? What should an investor be looking at?

In December 2017, the cost of bitcoin went over the $20,000 mark, which made even those with no previous interest in cryptocurrency start to think about investing in it. The experts announced a great future for virtual coins. Many offered positive forecasts of the bitcoin exchange rate for 2018, assuring the future increase in the price of BTC, increasing interest in mining, and the possible recognition of crypts in different countries.

However, in the beginning of 2018, something unforeseen happened — the rate went sharply lower. By the beginning of February, the value of BTC had dropped below $7,000. In spite of insignificant surges, the price of virtual coins was hit by a bearish trend, which seriously alarmed both potential and current investors. By mid-summer, the price had leveled out, and in July 2018, finally, a bullish trend prevailed.

This kind of volatility creates a number of difficulties for forecasting bitcoin’s dollar exchange rate for 2019. Ordinary investors are wondering how best to proceed — should they hold virtual money in anticipation of a price increase? Or sell while the BTC is experiencing a temporary jump in price?

I’ve spoken with experts and industry leaders and, to my surprise, almost all predict that bitcoin’s exchange rate will almost triple by January 1, 2019. In total, I received insides from 16 experts, and on average, they expect the rate to grow to $21,000. Generally, predictions vary from a price of $7,700 to an unthinkable $150,000 per bitcoin. And it’s curious that none of the respondents expects the exchange rate to fall.

It should be noted that 6 out of 16 experts directly connect the positive expectations to the forthcoming SEC decisions on Bitcoin ETF this fall. Bitcoin ETF is a traded fund (Exchange Traded Fund), which will use bitcoin as its basic asset, that is, it will buy bitcoins and then sell its shares to investors.

Investors will not be working directly with the digital money, which means their assets will have reliable protection. Unlike exchanges, which have been repeatedly cracked by hackers for hundreds of millions of dollars, issuers of Bitcoin-ETF are responsible for both looking after and insuring their customers’ assets.

The launch of Bitcoin-ETF is expected to result in large institutional investors, such as investment and pension funds, starting to invest in this area. These funds are now relegated to investing their capital into assets which are part of that regulated space.

16 Predictions for the Bitcoin Price from Industry Experts

1.Gavriel Shaw, CMO at Bitcoin.com:

As a hobbyist trader and self-proclaimed market psychologist, my best guess at the bitcoin price by January is ‘way up’ due to strong market forces and price chart patterns. A break-out appears to be imminent and it will be a very strong bull run. By Jan 1st… BTC at $10,500 and BCH at $1,500.

2. Khaled Khorshid, Co-Founder at Treon ICO:

In my view, we did not see BTC getting dumped nor have we seen it brake it’s crucial resistance points since August 15. I believe, if the SEC approves the BTC ETF by late September, we’ll see the price rally reaching its all-time of high of around $20K before the end of 2018.

3.Alexander V. van Dijl, Financial expert:

At the beginning of this year I predicted a bitcoin value of 150.000. While that seems like a lot today, I believe some firm price movements will take place in the (very) near future. Something big will happen, perhaps a large retailer will accept bitcoin, perhaps adult advertising will accept bitcoin as payment. Something big will happen that will cause the price to skyrocket again. 150.000 is my prediction for January 1st.

4. Ronald Shi, Head Trader/Analyst at Virtuse Exchange:

Bitcoin is often called “digital gold” and we often find a resemblance between the two. The volatility and price action of bitcoin today resembles the same price movement of gold prices in the 1980s. We believe that Bitcoin prices are in its late bear phase and if a Bitcoin ETF being approved by the SEC before October, bitcoin sentiments will turn and creep back to the $10,000-$12,000 range.

5. Luke Lombe, Head of Blockchain at PlayChip:

We’ve been in a strong bearish trend for all of 2018. Institutional money has been accumulating during the lows and I expect some positive developments on the ETF front within the next 6–9 months. If we can break the back of this bear run and push past US$8500, by January 2019 Bitcoin should be around double where we are now = US$12600.

6. Eric Brown, Founder and CEO of Aliant Payment Systems:

My Bitcoin price prediction for 1 January 2019 is $23,000.We were practically at this price once, and we know what it takes to get it back there. We are very much in the infancy of this type of currency, and as technology grows, so does the value of the currency. The future is technology and Bitcoin is the currency of that technology.

7. Hans Battle, Co-Founder and CFO of Incremint:

$10,000 — “After a period of obvious, frenzied speculation, we’re now seeing a pickup in requests for our escrow services in bitcoin for actual commercial applications. This will provide a floor in underpinning bitcoin’s value

8. Sam Russell, Co-Founder / EVP Strategy and Innovation at WORBLI:

If the fundamentals on Bitcoin positively change in September with the upcoming proposals for an ETF approval by the SEC, we can expect buying pressure to increase pushing price up to previous market structure highs of $11,400 testing resistance in that area. Should that happen, Bitcoin would effectively change in trend. My guess — 17,000 USD.

9. PK Banks, Co-Founder at CBlocks:

Using a very conservative and reasonable framework, it’s easy to see that bitcoin is currently undervalued, relative to its historical average. Bitcoin typically trades in a range of about 1.30 to 1.75 times its 200-day moving average (200 DMA). 9,420 within the next 4–5 months is easy to achieve, when bitcoin mean-reverts to a 1.25–1.40 200 DMA.

10. Collins Brown, Co-Founder at Market Protocol:

$14,000 BTC/USD. Bitcoin has shown a tremendous amount of resilience relative to the rest of the market as prices have declined. As we continue to work through this bear market, sentiment will eventually turn and BTC will be the largest benefactor over a short time horizon.

11. Kyle Fournier, Crypto Analyst at CryptoManiaks:

On January 1st, 2019, I expect the price of Bitcoin to be about $10,000.

Bitcoin and the crypto market go through clear cycles of bull markets followed by bear markets. Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, tweeted on July 31 of this year saying that we’re at the tail end of this crypto bubble. Bitcoin will soon start to gradually climb back up.

12.James Stefurak, Founder at Monarch Research:

Our year-end bitcoin target is $7700. Two main sources for this demand-

1) Tariff tensions increase the need for faster executions for import-export businesses

2) inevitable approval for a bitcoin ETF, probably within twelve months.

13. Kyle Asman, Co-Founder at BX3 Capital

I believe Bitcoin will hit $24,500 by the 1st of the year. When the Bitcoin ETF gains approval toward the end of September, Bitcoin should be around $7,000 and will see an increase of about 350% like the gold ETF did when it gained approval. The price of Bitcoin will continue to move higher throughout 2019.

14. Sam Olmsted, Consultant for Pelicoin:

At the beginning of 2019, Bitcoin is expected to hover right above $10,000 per coin. As global currency markets like that of Venezuela see hyperinflation, confidence in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will increase and raise prices.

15. David Hanson, Co-CEO of gaming distribution platform Ultra

I believe bitcoin will see a slight price recovery, rising to $8,500 by January 2019.

Following the SEC’s rejection of the Winklevoss ETF last month, the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies fell, however the effects of that will not be long-lasting. Similarly, I believe that the SEC will reject all ETFs for the rest of the year, but this will not cause the price of bitcoin to crash.

In fact, it will be beneficial to investors and encourage them to revert to the fundamentals and think long-term, as opposed to speculating in the short-term.

After bottoming out at $5,400, bitcoin will go sideways for a few months before recovering slowly and climbing back to $8,500.

16. Danny Scott, CEO and Co-Founder at CoinCorner:

Based on our existing data combined with industry trends, we predict the price of Bitcoin will level around $15,000 by 1st January 2019. We take this view as the industry is growing at a healthy rate, with the retail market developing steadily and considerable new interest from high net worth individuals and institutions being recorded.

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