Bitcoin Price Hits New All-Time High at $4,419, Stock Researcher Forecasts $7,500
Carrying this week’s upward momentum triggered by the scheduled activation of the Bitcoin Core development team’s scaling solution Segregated Witness (SegWit) and increase in demand from institutional investors towards bitcoin and rising adoption, bitcoin price established a new all-time high at $4,419 on August 15.
Upon establishing a new all-time high, the bitcoin price suffered a minor correction, dropping from $4.419 to $4,236. Still, on a 24-hour basis, bitcoin has recorded a 2 percent daily increase.
Many analysts including Standpoint stock researcher Ronnie Moas, who successfully predicted the recent surge of the bitcoin price to $4,000, noted that bitcoin has the potential to surpass the $7,500 mark before the year ends.
“What’s happening is the floodgates are opening. I believe there are hedge funds and very deep-pocketed individuals going into this now, really hundreds of millions of dollars. You can’t look at this as a normal situation. We’re in an industry that will probably go from $140 billion to $2 trillion and the bitcoin price will probably move with that,” said Moas.
Specifically, Moas emphasized the exponential rise in the involvement of institutional investors within the bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets, attributing such abrupt increase in demand as one of the driving factors of bitcoin’s recent rally. As key players in the finance sector including the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), the largest options exchange in the US, continue to establish necessary infrastructures for institutional and retail investors, the cryptocurrency market will grow in terms of market cap and daily trading volumes.
In a note to the clients and portfolio managers of Standpoint, Moas explained:
“I expect that within a couple of years we will have between 50 and 100 million cryptocurrency users — up from approximately ~10 million today. We only have 0.15% market penetration right now — if that goes to 2% or 3% we will get to the $50,000 price target that I set at the beginning of July.”
Previously, merely 12 months ago, the bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange markets lacked overseas regulations, robust infrastructures and sufficient liquidity for large-scale traders. Today, leading bitcoin service providers including the $1.6 billion bitcoin startup Coinbase and US-based regulated bitcoin exchange Gemini are collaborating with institutions like CBOE to drastically increase liquidity for institutional and retail investors.
As large sums of investments and capital flow into the bitcoin exchange market in the upcoming months, upon the completion of CBOE’s bitcoin integration and increased adoption from investment banks, the value of bitcoin will likely rise at a substantial rate, as noted by Moas. In consideration of the rapidly rising demand from investors, Moas’ $7,500 price target is a realistic year-end objective for traders.
Earlier this year, respected financial analysts including RT’s Max Keiser and Tone Vays revealed their predictions, stating that bitcoin price will hit $5,000 before 2017 ends. Moas increased his $5,000 price target to $7,500 in consideration of bitcoin’s recent strong rally. The imminence of SegWit activation and the launch of a bitcoin options and futures trading platform by CBOE are two major events which investors and traders should keep an eye on throughout August. CBOE’s integration of bitcoin will significantly increase liquidity for large-scale bitcoin traders, which the Winklevoss twins are aiming for.
Tyler Winklevoss, the founder and CEO of Gemini, wrote:
“Gemini’s key concerns in the cryptocurrency ecosystem have always been security, compliance, and regulatory oversight. By working with the team at CBOE, we are helping to make bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies increasingly accessible to both retail and institutional investors.”
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