There has been a lot of speculation about how high bitcoin will go, some people predict bitcoin will hit 1 million dollars or even more... it is possible as well that in a couple years bitcoin will be part of the past... maybe another coin will get the hype and bitcoin will disappear, there is even a guy assuring he will eat his own genitalia if the price doesn't reach 1 million $ by 2020...
Well, one thing is for sure, the evolution of the market in the next couple of years is going to be quite entertaining to say the least... :)
But there is one thing that is quite frightening, the fact that 4% of bitcoin holders own 95% of all the bitcoins (don't know the exact numbers, i guess it fluctuates every day)... It may sound obvious but when people start speculating about bitcoin price they seems to forget about this pretty important fact...
These 4% of bitcoin holders have the power to control the market and therefore the price... As we all know the price is established by the law of demand and supply so if these 4% get together and agree on an action plan, they could (and they probably do) control the price by selling little by little until the price get to a certain level and start buying again there positions at the dip they created... sounds pretty simple but mathematically it is possible...
There is one funny fact i wanted to share... On the recent dip, bitcoin price didn't fall all the way to 5000$, it actually stopped around 6000$ witch is the average limit of profitability for mining bitcoin... apparently the cost for mining a bitcoin is in average around 5000$ so if the price goes under 5000$ the chances for bitcoin to really collapse is very real.
This might be a product of my imaginative paranoia or maybe not... but what seems to be more realistic is that bitcoin price will go up and down, like ocean swell waves, following the greedy plan of whales controlling the market at their will until some proper regulation comes out to avoid these unfair tactics.
The cryptocurrencies market is still the wild west... it is at its birth but the technology behind bitcoin is real and going nowhere so it is likely that bitcoin is here to stay but we have to be aware that until there is no regulation, price will be manipulated... we dont have to be affraid of it, just be aware of it and use this knowledge to our benefit...
So the whales are going to make waves?? lets surf them! ;)
Peace