With half of 2019 already gone, here is a look at how the customary Bitcoin price forecasts have fared.
First Half of 2019 for Bitcoin
On the calendar, 2019 comes after 2018 but in crypto history, the year will undoubtedly be of far greater significance. Reason? Well, 2018 was something of a long winter for virtual currencies with prices falling by more than 80% across the board.
Many commentators had spent 2018 providing extremely positive price predictions on the back of a bullish late 2017 run. Bitcoin fell from $19,800 to $3,100 and altcoins saw red.
Perhaps in 2018, people wouldn’t be so eager to offer price forecasts, but alas they were. Not at first though because the Q1 2019 saw not much excitement in the market.
When not releasing their pseudo-cryptocurrency, JPMorgan spent Q1 2019 calling BTC at $2,400 fair value and saying the top-ranked crypto was only useful in a dystopia. From a price action perspective, it was dull until April Fool’s day.
April 1, 2019, triggers a full-blown rally that sees bitcoin cross $4,000, topping out at $8,000 a month-and-a-half later. Since then, it has been upwards with a few 30% declines along the way, and now BTC is up 220% in the first half of 2019.
In Q1 2019, commentators seemed prepared to stick to talking points like fundamentals without giving price forecasts. Since April Fool’s day, however, the price bets have come out in force.
From $10,000 to $40,000
Perennial bitcoin price forecaster Tom Lee of Fundstrat Global Advisors has moved from a conservative $10,000 to a more bullish $40,000 forecast in the space of three months. To be fair to Lee, he always did say 2019 would be positive for bitcoin.
The Fundstrat chief’s $10,000 prediction came to pass in June 2019. With the $10K mark attained, Lee believes this price milestone will trigger a FOMO-driven hype among retail investors taking BTC to $40,000 before the end of the year.
Others like Max Keiser also predicted that bitcoin would hit $10,000 back when the rise above $6,400 was still the 2019 high. Before any of these price calls, however, Weiss Ratings did say BTC would reach a new ATH in 2019.
Like Lee, Keiser also upped his short-term price bet from $10,000 to $28,000 at the end of May 2019. Keiser based his forecast on the situation in Europe saying BTC will set a new ATH in 2019.
For Keiser, the main goal isn’t even a new ATH but a six-digit price valuation that takes bitcoin’s market capitalization into the trillion-dollar arena on similar levels with commodities like gold.
Beyond 2019
Some commentators also added to the list of future price calls. The stock to flow, price models, predicts a BTC price of $55,000 by 2020.
The 2020 halving constitutes an integral part of many of these new future price bets with the expectation of BTC continuing its parabolic advance in the lead up to the block reward halving.
As always, there are the naysayers, “bitcoin is going to zero” brigade whose forecasts end up being more laughable than Lee’s $25k end-of-year price call for 2017. JPMorgan says BTC is overpriced, Nouriel Roubini, like a broken record never fails to bring up the $0 prediction.
What is your end of year price forecast for Bitcoin? Let us know in the comments below.
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