There's been no shortage of news about the surge in Bitcoin and some of the altcoins (alternative crypto currencies) in 2017. Japan allowing Bitcoins for transactions was a big factor in fueling the demand for Bitcoin as well as increasing odds that other countries, most notably South Korea, may follow suit.
However, there's an additional factor that is driving up the demand and speculation in Bitcoin and other altcoins. A low volatility and low yield stock market is forcing many people to look elsewhere for volatility and higher yields. More funds are looking at cryptocurrencies as a place to take on more risk for the higher yield. More traders are finding solace in the volatility that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and altcoins such as Ethereum offer. The chart below shows the number of confirmed transactions on the Bitcoin Blockchain per day for the last 12 months.
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The chart below shows the number Bitcoin Blockchain wallets, which have almost doubled over the last 12 months.
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Now let's look at the chart below, which is the USD equivalent of daily trading volume of only Bitcoin.
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The final chart shows the average daily market price for Bitcoin across major exchanges in USD.[caption id="attachment_4849" align="aligncenter" width="1803"]
From these charts, we can see:
- The number of Bitcoin transactions is rising rapidly.
- The number of wallets, and likely, the number of people jumping into the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency world continues to rise.
- The daily trading volume of only Bitcoin continues to increase with wild swings.
- Continued volatility in the price of Bitcoin is making it, and in turn, other cryptocurrencies very attractive to traders and speculators.
I expect volatility to moderate a bit in the short term but I also expect more and more traders, investors and technically savvy users jumping into the cryptocurrency world, mostly because of curiosity but also because other high-yield assets have already been widely invested in and the hunt for yield in a near zero interest rate world continues.
The whole ICO market is fascinating, if not highly speculative, and also offers another path to long-term yield. I expect this to add to the volatility and, hence, the increased speculation in the base cryptocurrencies. There aren't many places that a company can raise $35 million for their company in less than a minute. Come to think of it, I can't think of any place one can do that.