ADVERTISEMENTBitcoin (BTC) is expected to reach a new record at $88,000 (€82,000) throughout the year, before it settles around $77,000 at the end of 2024, according to a new report.
The cryptocurrency's current price sits at around $43,000.
UK fintech firm Finder carried out a study based on expert price predictions of 40 crypto industry specialists on how Bitcoin would perform through 2030.
It found that Bitcoin will likely hit an average peak price of $87,875 in 2024, with some experts surveyed predicting it will climb as high as $200,000.
On the flip side, the average lowest price Bitcoin could hit by the end of 2024 is $35,734, the report said, with some predicting it will fall as low as $20,000.
More than half of the experts that Finder surveyed expected the price to increase after a so-called "BTC halving event" in April 2024.
A halving event refers to a period every few years when the reward for mining Bitcoin transactions is cut in half. As things stand, those validating Bitcoin transactions currently get 6.25 Bitcoins, which could go down to 3.125.
Halving events lead to a lower supply, with fewer Bitcoins made available, naturally leading to higher prices.
Just under half of the 40 panellists surveyed by Finder (47%) believe that Bitcoin is going to reach a new all-time high six months after the halving event.
Kadan Stadelmann, CTO of blockchain platform Komodo, said in the report that Bitcoin is probably facing a fair bit of pressure, not only because of the expected halving event but also because "major companies and institutional investors [are] showing growing interest [in Bitcoin, which] is likely to drive demand."
Many experts forecast more buyers on the market following the US Securities and Exchange Commission's recent approval of 11 Bitcoin ETFs (exchange-traded funds), making it easier for individual investors to trade Bitcoin-related investment funds in the US stock exchanges.
The price could be propelled further upward once the US Federal Reserve cuts the historically high benchmark rate, as analysts expect more liquidity to consequently flow into Bitcoin.
However, John Hawkins, senior lecturer at the University of Canberra, believes that cryptocurrency is still little more than a speculative bubble.
"If the new spot Bitcoin ETFs are popular, there could be a temporary price increase. But in the medium to longer-term, I still regard Bitcoin as a speculative bubble," said Hawkins, adding that there were high expectations about similar ETFs entering the market in 2021, but the price crashed later.
BTC is expected to potentially climb to $122,688 in 2025 and $366,935 in 2030.
However, the truncated mean, a statistical measure of central tendency, puts the expected price at around $220,708 by 2030.
Overall, the majority (58%) of panellists say now is the time to buy BTC, 38% advise to hold, and 5% to sell.
Cryptocurrencies aren't regulated in the UK and there's no protection from the Financial Ombudsman or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
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