Bitcoin (BTC) rebounded to a one-week high as risk appetite in markets resurfaced and investors weighed on the regulatory issues facing the digital asset sector.
Bitcoin inched up 7% to trade $51,479 on CrypoSlate late Wednesday afternoon. Prices of the crypto were down almost 3% late Tuesday after Gary Gensler, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman bet said that eliminating fraud and other irregularities in the crypto markets is a major obstacle the agency must overcome.
Potential to increase 100-fold
The world’s most popular crypto was trading under $44,000 earlier this week, having notched an all-time peak the week before above $58,000. This rally indicates the third most impressive price advance in its history may still be in the offing, with a prominent investor like Tim Draper predicting that bitcoin has the potential to increase a further 100-fold.
As of Tuesday, institutional traders look to be bracing for a bitcoin price surge to $75,000 — and even beyond — in the next few months, based on figures from the options market.
“On Monday, some block traders took bull call spreads at $75,000 and $100,000 strike call options expiring on May 28 via over-the-counter trading and settlement desk Paradigm,” Coindesk quoted Swiss-headquartered options analytics platform Laevitas as saying. “These could be institutions who wager that bitcoin will hit at least $75,000 by summer,” Laevitas said.
Bitcoin: the currency of choice
As this developed, Citi offered its own prediction. Bitcoin, according to the diversified financial services holding company, is at a “tipping point” and could one day become “the currency of choice” for international trade. This, as companies like Paypal and Tesla have publicly touted its potential as a store of value and with central banks exploring the possibility of issuing their own cryptocurrencies.
Draper, sharing his thoughts this week on the Unstoppable Podcast, stood by the 2019 prediction and provided further detail about what he thought bitcoin’s market valuation could ultimately hit.
The latest currency holdings in fiat, he said, is around $100 trillion and “bitcoin‘s market cap is just reaching $1 trillion now — so there is no reason it can’t go up 100-fold,” he stressed, as per The Independent.
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