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Executives within the cryptocurrency industry called the beginning of a latest bull run with a growing variety of voices calling for fresh all-time highs for bitcoin in 2024 above $100,000.
Bitcoin has rallied greater than 120% this yr, with many optimistic in regards to the surge continuing into 2024.
“It feels that [2023]was a yr to prepare for the bull run that’s yet to come back. However the sentiment may be very longing for [2024] and 25,” Pascal Gauthier, CEO of Ledger, told CNBC last week in an interview.
The digital currency’s last record high of nearly $69,00 was hit in November 2021.
Since then, the crypto industry has been hit with a litany of issues from the collapse of coins and projects to bankruptcies and criminal trials. FTX, once considered one of the world’s biggest exchanges, collapsed with its founder Sam Bankman-Fried facing over 100 years in prison after he was found guilty on seven counts of criminal fraud.
Meanwhile, Binance chief Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to criminal charges and stepped down as the corporate’s CEO as a part of a $4.3 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Many within the industry see the 2 cases concluding as a line being drawn under issues which have plagued the crypto market.
“I believe that after you get the speculative phase out of the best way, which I believe we’re almost done with, probably not yet completely done, you then can get real builders specializing in the technology and the issues that may solve on the earth, reasonably than simply having an enormous digital casino for people to trade,” David Marcus, CEO of Lightspark, told CNBC last week in an interview.
Marcus, the previous leader of Facebook’s failed Diem stablecoin project, is now working on technology to enhance bitcoin as a payments network.
Now that those issues are out the best way, investors are focused on what the industry sees as positive developments. The primary is the growing excitement that a bitcoin exchange-traded fund, or ETF, is likely to be approved soon. This might usher in larger traditional investors who previously didn’t wish to touch crypto.
“I believe what the ETF means really is that bitcoin goes mainstream, and that is what people were waiting for,” Gauthier said.
The second development is the bitcoin halving, which takes place every 4 years and is scheduled for May 2024. Halving is when miners, that are entities who uphold the bitcoin network, see the rewards for his or her work cut in half. This keeps a cap on the availability of bitcoin — of which there’ll ever only be 21 million coins — and infrequently is an element behind a latest rally.
“Numerous market participants predict a bull run a while after the halving, but given the ETF news, we could thoroughly have a run before that leaving most investors on the sidelines. That might cause a large upward run in the value,” Vijay Ayyar, vp of international markets at cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX, told CNBC.
Bitcoin at $100,000?
There have already been some daring calls for bitcoin in 2024.
It began with Standard Chartered last week which reiterated an April price call that bitcoin would hit $100,000 by end of 2024. The bank said this shall be driven by the approvals of various ETFs.
That will mean a roughly 160% rally from Friday’s price of around $38,413, in response to CoinDesk data.
Matrixport, which bills itself as a crypto financial services firm, released a note last week projecting bitcoin would reach $63,140 by April 2024 and $125,000 by the top of next yr.
“Based on our inflation model, the macro environment is predicted to stay a sturdy tailwind for crypto. One other decline in inflation is anticipated, prompting the Federal Reserve to likely initiate rate of interest cuts,” Matrixport said in its report.
“Combined with geopolitical crosscurrents, this healthy dose of monetary support should push Bitcoin to latest highs in 2024.”
Many commentators see easing monetary policy as supportive for bitcoin which is viewed as a dangerous asset. Meanwhile, some see bitcoin as a form of “refuge” asset to pour money into in times of geopolitical strife.
When asked if bitcoin would hit $100,000 in 2024, Gauthier said “perhaps,” but declined to provide a price prediction.
“What we see is powerful fundamentals,” he said.
Ayyar said that the value of bitcoin is “consolidating” below a “key level” of $38,000, which is bullish for bitcoin. Once this level is broke, bitcoin could rally to between $45,000 and $48,000 next, he said.
Nevertheless, he warned the rally, which is largely built on expectations of an ETF approval, could fail if the product is rejected by regulators again.
“An all out ETF rejection could play havoc to this run as well, hence definitely something to be mindful of,” he said.
