Bear time seems to be getting over. All seems to be falling back in place just in line with the momentum that saw Bitcoin’s price touching the $2,000 mark earlier this year.
That moment seems to have come sooner than expected. The early rise probably turned out to be a major reason for the top digital currency to be racing towards conquering a higher price with little or nothing standing practically in its way.
As at today, the crypto market has dropped to about $80 bln according to current figures from CoinMarketCap with Bitcoin capturing 46 percent.
"When added to the professed agreement for major players to work together on the Bitcoin scaling issue starting September - if it becomes a reality, the price could see between $4,000 and $5,000 before the year ends."
Building up
Though the June lifting of the withdrawal embargo on Chinese exchanges seems to have added to the positive impact the market witnessed last month, the pace at which Bitcoin has moved in the first half of the year crossing the $2,500 price before the end of June speaks volume of what to expect before the year ends.
Using a simple moving average method to calculate a realistic addition to the Bitcoin market capitalization come 2018, it shows the current cap could sit comfortably at slightly over $50 bln come May - at around $37 bln today. This is based on the four-year market cap figure available on coinmarketcap.com and the approximately 17,062,500 Bitcoins that would have been in supply by then.
Publicity
The global curiosity level for Bitcoin has risen since the WannaCry hackers’ introduction of the top digital currency to new heights.
"The publicity created by the hack - good or bad - spread inevitably into various countries of the world, into new sectors that would never have considered talking about Bitcoin, and into the lips of those whose curiosity has been seen clamoring to be satisfied albeit in a little way."
Real questions asked
It hurt at first when the publicity was somewhat bad. Afterwards, after the digital currency’s security component has been deemed reliable by top security experts - though not everyone would admit this advantage openly - such that it makes it difficult even for the hackers to get away with the ransom easily, real questions are now being asked: What is Bitcoin? How does Bitcoin works? What do you need to know about Bitcoin? etc.
Simple as they may seem, you’d be surprised to know the number of people who still can’t answer these questions at all and the few that have an unreasonable idea of how to go about them. The urge to find answers to these questions about Bitcoin could not have come at a better time.
"A fraction of the risen Bitcoin price could be attributed to being a result of the added number of people who asked these questions - with some of them getting answers that really convinced them to understand what they have been missing on for quite some time."
Shortly after the hack, the latest information from Google Trend showed that Bitcoin rose to the fourth spot as the most trendy term in the US. Globally, it showed that interest in the currency was to the roof (100) in the week of May 15 though it now sits at an 84 score rate.
While Bolivia was on top of the list with interest climbing higher in Singapore, Pakistan and India at the time, South Africa now leads today as the country with search interest for the currency followed by Nigeria. Interest is also at the maximum for search terms: Bitcoin price and Bitcoin payment system.
2017 a good year
The current Bitcoin price decrease is due to the uncertainty around the coming long-awaited SegWit activation, says the founder of Cashaa (Auxesis Group), Kumar Gaurav though he is unsure of what could come next.
“When looking at 2017 so far, it still has been a good year for Bitcoin, starting just below 1000$ and now standing just below $2,000. Whether and to which extent this overall trend will continue will be seen more clearly after some crucial dates such as 1st August. If 80% of the Bitcoin community adopts the updates all should be fine. It seems most likely this will be reached, as the current signaling of intended support is at 87.8 percent, an increase from 83.28 percent in May. Comparable to when in May, following the New York agreement on SegWit2x, Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $2,160, it can reach new all-time highs after a successful activation as Bitcoin will be more attractive again and bring users of other cryptocurrencies back to Bitcoin.”
Another factor influencing the Bitcoin price is the ongoing ICO trend as ICOs are either being conducted in both Bitcoin and Ether or only in Ether, he adds, saying that it is either both digital currencies are being cashed out or only Ether being cashed out for Bitcoin and fiat.
“Whereas therefore, in any case, it is negative for the Ether price, any large ICO being held only in Ether will increase Bitcoin’s chance of reaching new highs later in 2017.”