I've been reading around a bit, and came across the most amazing but very unlikely reasons for the Bitcoin value to be a bit lower right now. Mathematics, regulations, we don't really need that at this point in time.
The answer to me is simple. I believe it no longer makes sense to look at just the market because the Bitcoin market cap is now so large that it is directly influenced by what's going on in daily life. This Friday it's Black Friday, and there are 2 things at play that I assume are causing this small temporary drop in Bitcoin value.
1: Adoption in society is bigger than some of us assume. The "normal" people own Bitcoin, meaning for the holiday season they are looking to buy presents. We can assume that a lot of Bitcoin is being cashed out to buy presents. When the holidays are over, what they have left will be put back in and investments will continue as usual.
2: Whales are looking at retail companies. Because when presents are being bought, it makes sense that investors are investing in companies like Amazon that sell most of those products. I just looked at the stock value, and for this month it's already up 7.83%. Bitcoin during the same period is down 5.20%. I assume that after the huge spike in sales, investors are going to cash out. This will likely happen shortly after these retailers present the "final numbers" of profits made during the holiday season.
My advice? If you're smart, buy and hold. Give it a week or 3 before Bitcoin reaches a record value. I'm not the one to give financial advice, but this time it's easy to explain.
And some predictions for the next year and beyond? (Source Time.com)
Conservative predictions of Bitcoin say the cryptocurrency will reach $100.000 by 2023. Some experts are more bullish. "The most knowledgeable educators in the space are predicting $100.000 Bitcoin in the first quarter of 2022 or sooner," says Kate Waltman, a New York-based certified public accountant specialized in cryptocurrencies. "Investors should expect a pretty sustainable rise in Bitcoin’s long-term value driven by organic market movement, with the $100.000 threshold in near-sight", predicted Jurrien Timmer, director of global macro at Fidelity Investments, last month.