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Bitcoin Briefly Over $5,000: Where to Experts See it Going in Near-Term?

Bitcoin briefly over $5,000: where to experts see it going in near-term?

Bitcoin Briefly Over $5,000: Where to Experts See it Going in Near-Term?

When Moon? That’s the question that crypto investors have been speculating about since the devastating, heavily-publicized bitcoin (BTC) crash throughout yesteryear. As this question has effectively been unanswered, some have begun to doubt that the moon even exists, as they look jealously at the Lamborghinis that speculators obtained in 2017’s bull rally.

Two prominent industry commentators, however, recently weighed in on the subject matter, giving investors a fleeting look at where bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies could end up in the future. And funnily enough, the future is brighter than some may think, but it may not be exactly what people expect.

Short-Term Bearish, Long-Term Bullish On bitcoin

At Token2049, Murad Mahmudov and Arjun Balaji took to the stage to give their thoughts on the cryptocurrency market. The crowd wasn’t initially pleased with what they had to say.

Short-term, Mahmudov, the chief investment officer of recently-launched cryptocurrency fund Adaptive Capital, is sure that bitcoin hasn’t bottomed yet. Doubling-down on a number of calls he has made on Twitter over recent weeks, the trader explained that he fully expects for BTC to “dip into the high $2,000s” or even lower (not under $2,000 though) before an eventual rally higher.

Related Reading: Traders Bet 1 BTC on Bitcoin Plunging to $1,500 Before Rising to $6,500: Is it Possible?

Balaji, the managing partner at Shomei Capital and a frequent contributor at The Block, echoed his fellow speaker’s thoughts to a tee. He quipped that the bottom is far from in, explaining that a move to the low-$2,000s likely isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

Interestingly, however, BTC embarked on a monumental rally on Tuesday morning, quashing bearish sentiment across the board. With this move, which brought the cryptocurrency briefly above $5,000, BTC surpassed its 200-day moving average, which analysts have seen as a key resistance to watch for nearly one year. If bitcoin holds and builds support above its 200-day moving average, currently situated at $4,600, some are sure that the chance for lower lows drops dramatically.

But that’s where the Token2049 presenters’ tones shifted from short-term bearish to long-term bullish. Mahmudov, who has quickly risen to legendary status in the industry, noted that while BTC is in its early stages, bitcoin as superior money will begin to make a move on fiat and gold, especially as the Lindy Effect gives the cryptocurrency more credibility with the processing of blocks over time. The investor even airs out the possibility that BTC won’t become the number one store of value, explaining that regardless, the asset will be trading at an order of magnitude higher than it is now. As Mahmudov added, “bitcoin is here to stay — $60 billion is just the beginning.”

In their final comments on bitcoin, the investors opined that the moon — defined as them as $100,000 per BTC — will likely come to fruition by 2022 or 2023. But as they hinted at earlier, the road to six figures may not exactly be clear-cut, as there remain a number of uncertainties in this market.

Skeptical Of Ethereum

While Balaji and Mahmudov see bright futures ahead of bitcoin, their presentation made it clear that they don’t feel the same hope towards Ethereum, a smart contracting platform whose dominance has slowly waned.

The Adaptive Capital partner flat-out explains that from his point of view, Ether is overpriced, citing his skepticism that decentralized applications — if the blockchain can solve its scalability concerns — hold a purpose. Moreover, he explains that the only reason that the cryptocurrency rallied as it did was solely due to the token sale boom, which Ethereum was the primary component of, as both a platform for token issuance and a way to purchase tokens.

Related Reading: Crypto Research Claims Ethereum PoS Unsustainable, Vitalik Hits Back

Balaji shared this line of thought. The Block contributor postures that Ethereum is in the midst of an existential crisis, as the project’s core developers scrap ideas for a “multi-year transition” to an unproven consensus mechanism. Although this technically-intensive move could result in a newfound innovation cycle, creating actually viable decentralized applications that can garner a mainstream audience, Balaji notes that until the ICO narrative is quashed, he would be skeptical of the project.

Bitcoin briefly over $5,000: where to experts see it going in near-term?

Interestingly, however, there has been a large amount of growth in the decentralized finance facet of Ethereum recently, giving investors hope that there is more than just gambling smart contracts, token sales, and decentralized pyramid schemes on the platform. This slipped under the radar of the Token2049 presenters, however. But that seems to be how the cookie crumbles as of late, as the bearish market has made many stakeholders return to their bitcoin-focused roots.

Featured Image from Shutterstock

Published at Tue, 02 Apr 2019 13:00:51 +0000

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Bitcoin is Booming in India as ‘Digital Gold’ Among Other Underlying Benefits

bitcoin is gaining a lot traction in India. Bitcoinist spoke with Sunny Ray, co-founder of India’s bitcoin exchange UnoCoin, to better understand what is fueling this growing trend in the country.


bitcoin Goes Mainstream in India

bitcoin is going places. After conquering China and catapulting it to the front line of bitcoin’s trading and mining sector, it is now starting to get traction in other countries like Japan and South Korea.

Now, bitcoin is also showing signs of a growing adoption rate in India, a country that has been deeply impacted by the demonetization policies implemented.

A look at yesterday’s Times of India publication shows that bitcoin is featured on the front page. The publication tells the story of a man who unknowingly exchanged, what would now be, a bitcoin fortune for extra lives on an online game, something that he obviously regrets.

The article also provides some facts about the cryptocurrency, its price, and regulatory standing. It also mentions the Interdisciplinary Committee created to assess the current state of existing global regulatory and legal structures as a means to apply the best regulatory framework possible for bitcoin in India.

The paper reads:

Finance ministry has set up a committee that will look at global regulatory frameworks for bitcoin and suggest measures for India.

bitcoin adoption in the country can be seen, not just in media reports, but also in the data provided by Unocoin, India’s most popular bitcoin Exchange. Co-founder Sunny Ray recently noted that:

It took 2 years and 10 months for Unocoin to reach 100,000 users. It only took another 6 months to reach 200,000 users.

Why is bitcoin Booming in India?

bitcoin’s received a lot of attention after the demonetization policies that saw India’s highest denomination banknotes removed from the economy were implemented in November 2016.

Since then, however, much has changed. Unocoin’s Sunny Ray explained what’s fueling bitcoin’s growing popularity in the country:

We think it’s less to do with demonetization and more to do with its underlying benefits. The uses range from: store of value is the number one use case (digital gold), second is inward remittance (as opposed to losing 4 days and 10% in fees), p2p payments, buying things online (mobile top up, etc), and it keeps going.

Furthermore, it’s not just Unocoin that is seeing an increasing adoption in bitcoin within the country.

Trading volume from p2p exchange LocalBitcoins reveals this growing trend, for example, as does the global INR market data provided by CryptoCompare:

“We conclude that, while the demonetization itself may have been a catalyst for bitcoin’s growth in India, it simply revealed one of the many advantages that bitcoin brings, in this case, the lack of centralized control and the superior privacy provided by the cryptocurrency,” he added.

India’s Government is Studying bitcoin

Earlier this month, the Indian government established an Interdisciplinary Committee chaired by various institutions like the country’s central bank and ministry of home affairs.

The committee’s main functions are

  • to take stock of the present status of virtual currencies (VCs) in and outside of India;
  • examine existing global regulatory and legal structures for VCs;
  • suggest measures for dealing with such VCs including issues relating to consumer protection, money laundering, etc;
  • and to examine any other matter related to VCs that may be considered as relevant.

Bitcoin India

The committee is expected to release a report on its findings by July of this year. 

It is unclear what changes the committee will bring about but Ray hopes that the creation of this organization will help citizens better understand virtual currencies, their benefits and risks.

Ray told Bitcoinist:

Our only hope is to try and educate the public. We are working with the best law firm in the country. The same law firm that’s helped to establish the largest self regulatory body in India, they helped enable payment processing and ecommerce to emerge and many many other seemingly disruptive change to the country:  Nishith Desai & Associates. All we can do is try. And the fact that some journalists in India are writing sensationalist articles to pry on people’s fears is not helping the cause.

The “largest self regulatory body in India” mentioned by Ray is the Digital Asset and Blockchain Foundation of India (DABFI). The self-regulatory body is comprised of bitcoin startups in the country such as Unocoin, Zebpay, Coinsecure, and Searchtrade.

The organization will focus on creating standard guidelines for trading blockchain based assets, KYC/AML and STR norms, while collaborating with regulators, creating awareness about the benefits and risks of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, and producing an environment that will stimulate the creation of other blockchain startups. DABFI will also publish reports regarding cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

Will the new Interdisciplinary Committee help advance bitcoin’s adoption in the country? Let us know in the comment section!


Images courtesy of Times of India, CryptoCompare, Shutterstock

The post Bitcoin is Booming in India as ‘Digital Gold’ Among Other Underlying Benefits appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.