BITCOIN price will go “way beyond” $20,000 in 2018 due to the global adoption of blockchain technology, a mainstream attitude towards the cryptocurrency and increased amounts of Initial Coin Offerings (ICO), crypto expert Cassius Kiani said.
Product Designer and Partner at Atlas Neue, Cassius Kiani, said bitcoin could soon start to “take off”.
Speaking to Express.co.uk from the CryptoCompare & MJAC London Blockchain Summit, Mr Kiani said: “I think it will go way beyond this year and the reason I think that is because if you look at the adoption of blockchain technology in 2018 it’s much higher, there is more ICOs than ever this year - they are raising more money than ever, there is more media coverage.
“Fundamentally, if you look at market graphs in the last few years - 2016 and 2017 look very similar.
“So you see the same peaks and troughs, you see the same growth and the same rise and form. And it’s a repeated cycle because history doesn’t repeat as much as it does rhyme.”
Mr Kiani also said nothing has fundamentally changed from a regulation perspective, despite demands from global legislators to implement the tougher regulation on cryptocurrencies.
He added: “All of the speculation around it has increased and ultimately people are continuing to talk about it more. Events like this are being hosted – there is more and more of this.
“There is more and more of it going into the public eye. All it takes is for the market to start to become bullish and then far too many people get in far too fast and it will go up.”
The blockchain boss also referenced the cluster of more than a thousand investors who invest in large amounts of bitcoin.
He said: “You don’t know where they’ve got them from. These actors aren’t buying them to sit on the fact there is going to be a marginal increase.
They are buying and sitting on them for the same reason everyone else is – because if perception and speculation says bitcoin is going up and people want to buy then there is no circulation.
“So what is in circulation is finite, which means that people have to turn around say ‘well I have to bid more and more and more’."
Bitcoin price stood at £6,439.88 at 11:13 (BST) on Monday, according to CoinDesk.
The price plunged by 12 percent in June after one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Coinrail, was hacked and the global crypto market lost an estimated $42 billion in value as a result.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have faced criticism by banks and finance experts, with billionaire Bill Gates telling CNBC he would bet against the bitcoin and short it if he could.
The Microsoft co-founder said: “As an asset class, you're not producing anything and so you shouldn't expect it to go up. It's kind of a pure 'greater fool theory' type of investment.”
He added: “I agree I would short it if there was an easy way to do it.”
Former PayPal CEO Bill Harris also claimed bitcoin is the “greatest scam in history”.
Mr Harris believes there is “no store value” in bitcoin, it should “not be accepted as a means of payment” and has no intrinsic value.
By CHARLOTTE DAVIS
PUBLISHED: 08:11, Tue, Jun 19, 2018
UPDATED: 08:11, Tue, Jun 19, 2018