An early investor of Facebook and venture capitalist named Roger McNamee forecasted that 2018 will be either a make or break year for a popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), as he spoke to CNBC on Thursday.
McNamee is confident that Bitcoin’s outstanding boost in value this year is because of speculation. However, he indicated that the performance legitimacy of the coin is up to its persistence in 2018.
He said:
“[Bitcoin] is still a very small market in the context of the larger financial world, but it has had a huge year and we’ve done it around a speculative mania. The thing that people forget is that if a mania goes on long enough, it becomes self-fulfilling. So that even after the crash that follows, there is a real industry”.
Referring to McNamee, the present potential of Bitcoin market – with $246 bln as a market cap and $12 bln as a 24 hour trading volume at the press time – demonstrate that it has the performance to attract more large money, which could finally make it a launched part of the world financial market.
He stated:
“With the level of activity going on…there are people that are willing to invest the kind of dollars it takes to make a thing like Bitcoin into a long-term part of the financial market…The big thing about 2018 is that I think we’re going to find out one way or the other”.
Last week, Bitcoin, along with the whole virtual market, endured a severe dip, with BTC alone falling almost 30 percent. The market rapidly restored; however the past week has been spotted by a volatility that is not exactly new to the market.
McNamee furthered that there will be more volatility next year; however, how it “settles out” will dictate a durability of Bitcoin in a long run.
“You’ll have these big swings, up and presumably down, as well. And, you know, wherever that settles out I think will tell us a lot about the role of Bitcoin long-term. I don’t think it will be the end of the story either way”.
In other forecast for the New Year, a reputable stock analyst named Ronnie Moas commented that Bitcoin could reach a $28,000 high in 2018. Likewise, Dr. Julian Hosp, Tenx’s co-founder, also agrees to McNamee and foresees greater volatility for Bitcoin, stating that the price could touch as high as $60,000 or as low as $5,000 next year.