When it comes to Bitcoin, one cannot fail to mention the blockchain. Bitcoin and blockchain technology were born together. It has been 13 years so far. Bitcoin is known as the most successful application of blockchain electronic products, and has reached a market value of 200 billion US dollars. As an important theoretical facility for the sustainable development of the national digital city economy, blockchain technology is leading a new round of scientific and technological and industrial system changes in the world. The decentralized exchange, the venue for Bitcoin trading activities, will also become an important time node to occupy the commanding heights of the global blockchain industry.
Bitcoin has performed well in the past 2021, with a cumulative increase of more than 60%. Looking forward to 2022, analysts have different opinions on the prospects of Bitcoin. Some people believe that the development of the central bank's monetary policy and meta-universe will greatly benefit its price, but some analysts are skeptical. Bitcoin prices are still trading near US$46,500.
Carol Alexander, a finance professor at Sussex University in the United Kingdom, predicts that Bitcoin may fall to $10,000 by 2022, wiping out all the gains in the past year and a half. She said: "If I were an investor, I would consider withdrawing Bitcoin as soon as possible, because its price may collapse in 2022." She believes that Bitcoin has no basic value, like a "toy" rather than an investment. Warn that the history of Bitcoin's crash may repeat itself.
Todd Lowenstein, chief equity strategist at Union Bank's private banking division, pointed out that Bitcoin's price movement is undoubtedly similar to many asset bubbles in history, but people always think that "this time is different", and the Fed is more hawkish. Pie's position may weaken Bitcoin's momentum.
However, Michael Saylor, the chief executive of MicroStrategy, a US software company that has long been optimistic about Bitcoin, blew himself up recently. He has at least 17,732 Bitcoins and expects Bitcoin to rise to 6 million U.S. dollars, which is 120 times the potential upside. According to reports, Saylor has been increasing its holdings of Bitcoin since 2019 and has never sold it.
Some analysts said that the degree of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's tightening policy after achieving a 60% annual increase last year may become the key to affecting Bitcoin's trend this year, but there is also another opinion that Meta( Technology companies such as FB-US) and Apple (AAPL-US) have more in-depth layout of the meta-universe, and more and more people are pouring into the NFT market, which will help drive the cryptocurrency higher. According to CoinDesk, Bitcoin fell 0.84% before the deadline on Monday, temporarily trading at US$46,900.86.
Bloomberg quoted four market observers on the outlook for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies this year. From a technical point of view, Katie Stockton, founder of Fairlead Strategies LLC, stated that assuming the long-term upward trend remains unchanged, if Bitcoin makes a decisive breakthrough and then hits a record high, it is expected to appear at an astonishing price of US$90,000. Although it is still in the correction stage, Stockton believes that Bitcoin's short-term downward action seems to be exhausted. In the long-term, Stockton is optimistic that Bitcoin will continue to rise. Antoni Trenchev, managing partner of Nexo, a cryptocurrency lending platform, said that the number one factor affecting cryptocurrencies this year is central bank policy. Because the Fed has no courage to withstand the stock bond market crash, the market is still flooded with low-interest funds, which is bound to have a huge impact on cryptocurrencies. . Although the market is expected to be volatile this year, Trenchev is still optimistic that Bitcoin will reach a high of $100,000 before the end of June, and also optimistic about the growth potential brought by Metaverse.
Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at Oanda Asia Pacific, predicts that the speculative boom in the cryptocurrency market will continue, but cryptocurrencies may face a more challenging environment this year, mainly due to the normalization of Fed interest rates and other central banks' imitating. The view of currency as a substitute for legal tender will be challenged. Halley said: "I still believe that cryptocurrency is the largest case of collective stupidity in financial history. Music may continue to be played for a while, but the king still doesn't have half of his clothes."
Cryptocurrency has experienced a turbulent year, and many countries have made varying degrees of regulation to influence price trends. In January last year, the market worried that the United States would strengthen the supervision of virtual currencies. According to the trading platform CryptoCompare, although the price fell to about 28,800 US dollars at that time, it rebounded in February. In March, SpaceX founder Musk added to the flames, stimulating Bitcoin to rush to more than $64,000 in April. However, the good times did not last long. China suddenly introduced new regulations to restrict virtual currency trading and mining activities. The price began to pull back and fell below US$30,000 in July.
However, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) acquiesced to the listing of the Bitcoin Futures Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) "BITO" on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming the ETF with the second highest turnover in history, driving the price of Bitcoin to rise. At the beginning of the month, it rose to nearly 69,000 US dollars and set a new record high again, which caused an uproar in the market.
Cathie Wood, known as the "God of Technology Women", previously pointed out that as institutional investors enter the market, the price of Bitcoin can soar to about $560,000 in 5 years. However, "stock god" Buffett's partner and Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman Munger said that cryptocurrencies should not exist.
Some market participants believe that although investing in cryptocurrencies can be regarded as a non-US dollar hedging option, the price volatility is extremely high and speculative means that it may not be affordable for everyone. In addition, the regulatory risk is still large, so it is important to include it in the investment portfolio. Part of it is an alternative option, but don't make a desperate bet.
