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Despite Recent Volatility, Majority of Financial Experts Remain Bullish on Cryptocurrency
Adam James · @Shasdam | Mar 17, 2018 | 14:00
Despite recent market volatility and declining valuations, more than half of investors exposed to cryptocurrency plan on purchasing more over the next year.
Undeterred Optimism
Research conducted by international communications agency Citigate Dewe Rogerson has revealed that 56 percent of cryptocurrency investors are planning on purchasing more digital assets over the next 12 months.
Meanwhile, 31 percent of cryptocurrency investors are planning on holding all or selling some of their digital assets, while 8 percent plan on dumping it all.
Recent weeks have seen the prices of cryptocurrencies plummet. At press time, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $8,346.50, which is well off its all-time high of over $20K. Likewise, Ethereum (ETH) is trading at $608.65, Ripple (XRP) at $0.68, Litecoin (LTC) at $164.10, and Cardano (ADA) at $0.17 — all significantly lower than their peaks a few months ago.
Nevertheless, financial professionals reported optimism to Citigate. 54 percent noted that they expect the valuations of cryptocurrencies to rise over the next 12 months, citing increased regulation and adoption as positive drivers in price. On the other hand, 32 percent expect a drop. The same percentage of respondents also expect a “dramatic” increase in cryptocurrency valuation from now until 2021.
Citigate Dewe Rogerson executive director Phil Anderson told City A.M.:
At the start of the year, the market capitalisation for cryptocurrencies was around $800bn (£577bn), but by 2021 over half of the financial professionals (59 per cent) we interviewed expect it to be over $1 trillion, while 15 per cent anticipate it to be more than $2 trillion.
This positive sentiment mirrors that of others in the financial industry — like Bitwise Asset Management Vice President of Research and Development Matt Hougan, who stated last month his belief that cryptocurrency is a multi-trillion dollar opportunity. Hougan explained:
The road between now and trillions of dollars will be extremely rocky … we could get there in a few months. We could get there in a few years. We could go down 50% before we get there … [but] I think the pathway to a trillion dollars eventually is fairly certain. How we get there is going to be volatile and uncomfortable. I think we’ll get there pretty soon, though. I wouldn’t be surprised if we ended the year with an accumulated market cap over a trillion dollars.
Are you planning on increasing your cryptocurrency portfolio, or are you looking to simply hold on to what you’ve got? Do you have plans to sell it all? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of AdobeStock, Bitcoinist archives, and Pixabay.
