As the most prominent digital currency, Bitcoin (BTC), continues to score its new untouched highs, industry onlookers see significant changes in the BTC adoption scene as well.
As claimed last year by the Chief Operating Officer at blockchain portfolio company Dan Holdings, Anthony Lauriola, we saw “a significant shift in the way people view cryptocurrency,” as people are starting to see it more as a method of payment and not just a store of value – a trend Lauriola said will continue into 2021.
“As we see more global entities entering the crypto space, we will likely continue to see bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies continue to increase in price, value, and popularity.” Furthermore, crypto adoption in emerging markets will also play a part in the overall market growth in the coming years.
Additionally, to offset negative effects on the economy, governments were doesn’t have a choice but to print mass amounts of physical cash, countless individuals have shifted to bitcoin to hedge against inflation.
Estimating that BTC will hit USD 100,000 this year, Laura mentioned that, “We may start to see the effects of this in 2021 and I believe this could be the driving factor for a bitcoin bull market.”
Lauriola additionally explained that last year, there was a large increase in the number of people who relied on cryptocurrencies and digital payments for remittances and bill payments in many regions of Africa.
“There is still a lot to be learned as far as individuals using cryptocurrency as a payment method, but we are beginning to see the barriers to entry being lowered as technology becomes more accessible for everyone.”
Similarly, Philippe Bekhazi, CEO of stablecoin platform Stablehouse, expects that “any further economic fallout from the pandemic will spur growth of payment networks predicated on bitcoin or ethereum in emerging economies.”
Meantime, Sinjin David Jung, Managing Director of IBMR.io, offered a historic perspective. He stated that,
“While it might seem like a bubble there is a very big difference from other times in the past, like 2008 we had issues in terms of the financial markets and how opaque they were.”
The stock market was getting bigger at the time, as were tech stock valuations. And unlike the internet euphoria of 1995-1999, when the internet was “as a single network” […] now you have layers of networks, networks upon networks.”
He told that this is a very different time and expects this bull market to continue for the next almost 2 years.
He continued by stating that,
“After that, all bets are off but we’re definitely entering into a new economic reality structurally because of the way technology now has changed the way production is globally to create this exponential network upon network framework.”
Whatever the case may be, the consensus seems to be that BTC will trade between USD 50,000 and USD 100,000 in 2021.
“Considering how well bitcoin has profiled itself thus far in the coronavirus aftermath and given the outlook from our current macroeconomic environment, we’re expecting 2021 to be a phenomenal year for bitcoin. It’s not entirely unlikely that we’ll see bitcoin trade in the [USD] 50k – [USD] 100k range,” Eric Wall, the Chief Investment Officer of the crypto hedge fund outfit Arcane Assets stated.
According to CoreLedger CEO Johannes Schweifer, USD 100,00 is “only 5 times” from its historic all-time high of 2017: “Bitcoin has shown it can grow more than that in a shorter timespan than one year, so it is more than possible.”
Meantime, Sinjin David Jung explained that,
“As the vaccine kicks in and the stimulus comes out the economy is going to get a kick start but people are still going to be wary of traditional assets and while they probably will still sock something away in the current stock market it will also be in cryptocurrencies.”
The CEO and Founder of the major Bitcoin mining hardware provider Canaan, Nangeng Zhang, stated that 2020 has also seen the use of bitcoin as a safe-haven asset much like gold, leading to increased demand.
With prices soaring to new record-highs, stated Zhang, “my hope is that this reflects sustained growth and interest for digital assets as a whole — rather than the speculative frenzy that resulted in the early bitcoin bubble of 2017.”
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