As the price of Bitcoin hovers just under its all-time high, a report released today by Australia-based comparison site Finder.com is predicting that the world’s largest cryptocurrency will peak at US$80,021 later in 2021 before ending the year slightly lower at US$71,415.
Fast facts
- Bitcoin was trading at US$62,294 at publishing time, just below its all-time high of US$64,804, according to data from CoinGecko.
- The predictions were based on a Finder’s survey of 50 crypto and fintech industry experts conducted in September and October this year on how they expect Bitcoin to perform over the next decade. The panel, which included Finder.com founder Fred Schebesta, predicted that Bitcoin prices would soar over time to reach US$249,578 by 2025 and US$5,237,082 by 2030.
- Schebesta was more bullish than the panel average, predicting BTC will cap the year at US$87,000 due to its surrounding hype. “Bitcoin is so hot right now,” Schebesta said in the report. “NFTs are pumping it, there is so much institutional demand, the U.S. government is not banning it and everyone’s getting in on it. I have strong conviction that it will continue to rise.”
- But the panel was evenly divided — 46% on each side — on whether now is the time to buy or to “hodl.” Martin Fröhler, CEO of Morpher, a trading platform on the Ethereum blockchain, thinks it is time to buy because “a macro environment of central banks printing money at will, strong on-chain fundamentals, institutional adoption and a futures-based Bitcoin ETF in the U.S. will propel BTC to new highs in 2021,” according to the Finder.com report.
- Conversely, University of Canberra lecturer John Hawkins — who once headed the economics division at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and was a senior economist with the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Bank for International Settlements — is among the 8% of panelists who believe it is time to sell. “A Bitcoin price collapse could be the result of disillusionment with all private crypto as central bank digital currencies demonstrate they are the future of e-currency, or it might just be because Ethereum is seen as the better crypto,” Hawkins said in the report.
- The report also posed the very timely question of whether or not panelists were in favor of creating a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. Over the weekend, news of two pending U.S. Bitcoin futures ETFs caused Bitcoin prices to surge to US$62,688, according to data from CoinGecko — BTC’s highest price point since its all-time high in April this year, before the crypto market crash in May. Notably, the panelists were polled regarding a BTC-backed Bitcoin ETF, rather than the Bitcoin future ETF that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved. But as industry watcher Jeff Yew, CEO of Monochrome Asset Management recently told Forkast.News, the approval of a Bitcoin futures ETF could also mean that Bitcoin-backed ETFs are now likely to be approved in the U.S. “sooner than we think.”
- A majority of panelists were in favor of establishing a Bitcoin ETF — 60% — while 18% were unsure and 22% were opposed. While there was a great deal of excitement in the crypto industry over U.S. approval of a Bitcoin futures ETF, University of Liverpool lecturer in law Matthew Shillito, whose research focuses on cryptocurrencies, dark web crime and financial regulations, did not believe it was a positive development. “It might appear to offer a convenient way for an inexperienced user to engage with the crypto market,” Shillito is quoted as saying in the Finder.com report. “Essentially, it is a way for the financial industry to make money. If an individual believes in crypto, they should develop their own crypto investment strategy rather than merely investing in an ETF.”