All Cryptocurrency Transactions Including Bitcoin Will Halve in Value This Year
According to a recent research paper from Juniper Research called “The Future of Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin & Altcoin Impact & Opportunities 2015-2019”, all cryptocurrency transactions including Bitcoin will more than halve in value this year. The paper explains that the transactions will fall from $71 billion (2014) to just over $30 billion in 2015.
Main Reasons for the Decline
The decline reported in the paper from Juniper is explained by the combined impact of bitcoin exchange collapses, Bitcoin thefts, and regulatory concerns. The researchers are worried about cryptocurrencies’ role in funding the “dark web” and may see potential bans from different regulators and nations.
Also read: Bitcoin Trading Volume Increased from $15 Billion to $23 Billion Last Year
Juniper explains the surge in digital currency transaction in 2014 as:
overwhelmingly attributable to brief spikes in activity during the first quarter in Dogecoin, Litecoin and Auroracoin
At the end of 2014, these cryptocurrencies counted for less than 5% of their earlier spike.
Bitcoin Stabilizing?
The paper also explains that the introduction of licensed and regulated bitcoin exchanges might lead to a stabilization of the currency’s value. And that Bitcoin retail adoption will increase. Unregulated marketplaces have lost consumers’ confidence due to the Mt. Gox collapse and the theft of nearly $5 million in bitcoins from the bitcoin exchange Bitstamp.
Cryptocurrency protocols will have a strong role to play in the future.
It is likely that we will see the technologies behind cryptocurrency deployed in areas such as real-time transactional settlement
The paper ends with arguing that the amount of challenges Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies face are so great, that they will struggle to gain traction beyond a tech-savvy demographic.
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