Despite Bitcoin's recent rally to just over $7000 after the capitulation to $3800, macroeconomic conditions globally do not favor risk-on assets. The question as the whether Bitcoin is a risk-on asset or a safe haven is crucial. Macroeconomic conditions where Bitcoin could serve as a safe haven are completely uncharted territory for Bitcoin as the project was launched only in 2009.
It should be noted that in Satoshi Nakamoto's white paper, Bitcoin is conceptualized as an electronic peer-to-peer cash system. Bitcoin hasn't been adopted as a payment system to any meaningful degree so far. Most Bitcoin transactions take place on centralized exchanges where Bitcoin is traded as a speculative asset. This should not come as a surprise as Bitcoin is not capable of scaling sufficiently to serve as a global p2p e-cash system without second tier solutions. Bitcoin is decentralized, unconfiscatable, pseudonymous, hard capped and easily transferable. But, critically, it lacks adoption.
If Bitcoin crashes to, say, $1000 by the end of the year, the vast majority of altcoins will lose nearly 100% of their value. Only those altcoins will be have monetary value left that have a value proposition other than a vehicle to trade against Bitcoin. Some have. Those that represent a digital asset or service, such as Siacoin (data storage capacity) or Hive (influence on a social network) have potential to survive on their own, despite the fact that the speculative trading accounts for a large part of their trading volume and current valuation.
I do not expect Bitcoin to appreciate exponentially in the coming years simply because investors in Bitcoin will lack the cash to invest in it. Bitcoin requires almost a million dollars a day to run at the current hash rate. I have hard time visualizing that kind of money buying Bitcoin in the next few years. What about central banks causing hyperinflation? While I'm hoping central banks will inflate their out of this mess, I'm not sure that will happen. There is no sign of hyperinflation in the euro zone despite the likes of Greece and Italy being solvent only thanks to the ECB buying up their debt. That's because a central bank like the ECB can target what it buys with a high degree of precision. Historically defaults have been another possible way for clean the slate. Even countries have defaulted on their debts. Central banks will take drastic measures to increase liquidity but a lot of liquidity will be lost at the same time through defaults, debt repayment and the much fewer new loans being issued than before.