Over the past 24 hours, the bitcoin price has regained momentum after two major corrections, recovering to $15,000 across all major bitcoin markets including the US and Japan.
In South Korea, the demand for bitcoin still remains significantly high, as it is being traded with a $4,000 premium at a price of $19,000.
$60,000 Mid-Term Target
Julian Hosp, the founder of TenX, a popular cryptocurrency visa debit card service provider and cryptocurrency analyst, stated that the price of bitcoin will likely surpass $60,000 by the end of 2018, achieving a multi-trillion dollar market. A $60,000 price per bitcoin would place the market valuation of the cryptocurrency at $1.26 trillion.
“I think we’re going to see bitcoin hitting the $60,000 dollar mark, but I also think we’re going to see bitcoin hitting the $5,000 dollar mark. The question is though, ‘Which one is it going to hit first?’” said Hosp.
The prediction of a major correction of over 50 percent is exaggerated, and the price of bitcoin will likely not plunge to $5,000 given that it already has experienced and recovered from large price corrections.
Contrary to the claims of many analysts, corrections are beneficial to bitcoin and the rest of the cryptocurrency market because they prevent the occurence or formation of short-term bubbles. Through corrections, the bitcoin market stabilizes and strengthens, as weak hands and speculators fall off.
Hosp added:
“For experts that have been in the market, this was actually a welcome dip. This dip for us was very, very healthy, and some of us have used it to buy a little bit more because suddenly we had 40-45 percent discount to all-time highs. I don’t think right now, but I think in the long run, we will always see a little bit of an up move, and then a dip down.”
A correction of 66 percent at this phase of adoption, development, and market growth is not likely, considering that leading multi-billion financial institutions such as the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), two of the world’s largest stock markets by trading volume and market capitalization of listed companies, have started to embrace and provide support around the cryptocurrency.
NYSE Focuses on Bitcoin
As of June 2017, the market capitalization of companies listed on NYSE amount to a staggering $21.7 trillion. Despite that, NYSE chairman publicly expressed his regret for not listing bitcoin futures ahead of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) and CME Group.
“We may be stupid for not being first on that. I don’t have the answers, I wish I knew. I don’t know what to make of cryptocurrencies,” said NYSE Chairman Jeff Sprecher at an investor conference sponsored by Goldman Sachs.
Given that NYSE has fallen behind other options and stock markets in facilitating the demand for cryptocurrencies from investors in the traditional finance market, the company has focused on introducing investment instruments and regulated platforms for cryptocurrency trading.
This month, NYSE filed two bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which are expected to improve the accessibility of bitcoin on regulated exchanges.