Why a top executive expects Bitcoin to surge 150% in 2020 🚨 This article is 5 years old...
Why a top executive expects Bitcoin to surge 150% in 2020
2 min read
Updated: Jan. 10, 2020 at 5:10 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Bitcoin (BTC) has had a great start to 2020, rallying 16 percent higher from the $6,800 lows put in last week. Although some say it is too early to tell if the cryptocurrency market is out of a bear phase, a top executive is convinced that Bitcoin will perform extremely well over the next 12 months, going as far as to say that a 150 percent surge could be had.
Bitcoin to surge 150 percent higher?
Sonny Singh, the CCO of cryptocurrency payments company BitPay, recently sat down with Bloomberg to give his latest updates on the cryptocurrency market.
After talking about Bitcoin’s latest price spike, which the host pointed out was seemingly in correlation with news regarding the U.S.-Iran conflict, Singh was asked about his thoughts on why the cryptocurrency market has the potential to appreciate in 2020. Specifically, the industry executive was questioned about the fundamental factors that could thrust Bitcoin higher in the coming 12 months.
Interestingly, he didn’t look to the impending block reward reduction in May 2020, dubbed the “halving” or “halvening.” Instead, he cited the “unforeseen things” in the cryptocurrency space as the likely catalyst for Bitcoin to hit $20,000—just around 150 percent higher than the current price of $8,000—by the end of the year.
Although the catalyst he cited is rather nebulous as it is “unseen,” to give an example, Singh touched on a previous so-called black swan event, the launch of the Libra crypto project by Facebook, PayPal, Spotify, and others in 2019.
He remarked that it was the launch of the product that sent Bitcoin higher.
The executive suggested that if a country like China or India legalizes Bitcoin, if other companies at a similar caliber to Facebook enter crypto, or if we see more macroeconomic events, BTC could surge towards his target.
Touching on auxiliary trends that could boost Bitcoin’s price, Singh cited the following two:
- Fidelity has launched its institutional-grade cryptocurrency investment and custody service for its institutional clients, potentially acting as a gateway for a large influx into the Bitcoin markets.
- Square has hired a number of crypto-centric engineers to make Bitcoin more usable and adaptable, potentially increasing demand for digital assets over time.
Others Even More Optimistic
Although $20,000 is already a lofty prediction, others are even more confident.
According to a Medium post written by The Spartan Group, a blockchain advisory and investment firm run by individuals formerly of Goldman Sachs and other firms, Bitcoin could hit $40,000 in the upcoming year.
Per previous reports from CryptoSlate, the company backed its prediction by looking to the halving, which is when the number of BTC issued per block (every 10 minutes or so) will get cut in half from 12.5 to 6.25, effectively meaning that BTC’s inflation rate will be cut in half.
Analysts say the expectation that Bitcoin will shoot sky-high after the halving makes sense.
For instance, Melik Manukyan, a prominent Bitcoin commentator and engineer recently suggested that the scarcity of the leading cryptocurrency should lead to dramatic price appreciation with a multi-month lag following the event.
The engineer noted that halvings will have a large impact on the supply-demand economics of the BTC market, which should eventually result in prices heading higher to a decrease in mined supply being sold on the market.
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Bitcoin, a decentralized currency that defies the sway of central banks or administrators, transacts electronically, circumventing intermediaries via a peer-to-peer network.
BitPay provides bitcoin and bitcoin cash payment processing services for merchants, and is one of the largest bitcoin payment processors.