While Bitcoin price has seen its fair share of speculation, it seems as though the token is gaining enough to try to prove the high-end price predictions correct.

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The crypto winter seems to be finally over, with Bitcoin breaking past $12,600 recently. According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin hit a low of $3191.30 at the end of 2018 after reaching an all-time high of close to $20,000 in December 2017. This year alone Bitcoin has increased in value from around $3400 in January 2019 to hovering around $11,600 in August at the time of writing.

Bitcoin return on investment since launch

Since the time of launch in 2009 Bitcoin has had a 8,524% ROI according to CoinMarketCap.

What is the Bitcoin halving?

The bitcoin halving is when the reward for mining bitcoin will be halved. Currently, the reward for bitcoin miners is 12.5 BTC per block. At the next Bitcoin halving, this figure will be reduced to 6.25 BTC, this is estimated to be in May of 2020. The previous bitcoin halving was on the 9th of July 2016 when the bitcoin block reward was reduced from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC.

How does the Bitcoin halving affect Bitcoin price?

The Bitcoin halving increases the scarcity of Bitcoin as the number of Bitcoin mined per block is less. The more scarce the original crypto is the greater the demand will be, which will likely lead to a price increase. History tells us that approximately 12 months away from a bitcoin halving event, we can expect a lot of price volatility leading up to the event.

2019 Bitcoin price predictions from experts

The crypto winter is finally over, this also means crypto experts have started making bold Bitcoin price predictions. Here are some of the top predictions from crypto experts:

• Fundstats Global Advisors, Tom Lee expects ‘FOMO’ due to a breach of the $10,000 price mark to push BTC to $40,000 in a few months.
• Billionaire investor Tim Draper renewed his claim that Bitcoin will reach $250,000 by 2023 earlier this year at the SALT Conference in Las Vegas when BTC hit $8000. Telling Fox Business,  “It’s going to keep going because I’m a believer that in four years, something like that, bitcoin will be about a 5 per cent market share of the Earth.”
• Controversial crypto personality, John McAfee predicts that Bitcoin will hit $1M by the end of 2020. He tweeted, “People are waking up to the fact that Bitcoin will be $1,000 000. But when? “Someday”. “Maybe 5 years”. “Within a decade”.  I’m the only one giving you a hard date: Dec 31st, 2020.”
• Vp of blockchain at IBM Jesse Lund said that “BTC will be $1 million someday”.
•  Anthony Pompliano, the Morgan Creek Digital co-founder, predicts Bitcoin will smash through to hit $100,000 by the end of 2021.
• In May, Michael Novogratz declared that Bitcoin’s will see triple figures over the next 18 months to return to its all-time high value of nearly $20,000.
• Pantera Capital’s Dan Morehead has predicted that Bitcoin will increase by the end of the year to see $42,000.
• Canaccord Genuity Capital Markets analysts Michael Graham and Scott Suh suggest that the four-year cycle will result in Bitcoin’s all-time-high next year March.
• Cryptocurrency technical analyst MagicPoopCannon said that he thinks the next major bull run will rally in August 2023, saying: In my view, this next bull market is likely to rally to around $150,000, by approximately August of 2023.”

Additional factors affecting Bitcoin price

• There has been an increased institutional involvement in the cryptocurrency space,
• Facebook announced the launch of Libra
• New Zealand has accepted that Bitcoin is a legal method of payment for wages. This has caused a stir in the financial space as it is the first country to allow cryptocurrency as a lawful way of paying employees.
• Binance has announced plans to launch its own stablecoin as an open-sourced blockchain project to peg cryptocurrencies to fiat prices.
• BTC futures may have a great impact on bitcoin volumes, Bakkt has been cleared to test it’s futures products (Beginning in July) bringing us closer to a BTC ETF.

UPDATE

• Bakkt has been cleared to launch Bitcoin Futures next month, with ICE stating: “Our contracts have already received the green light from the CFTC through the self-certification process and user acceptance testing has begun. With approval by the New York State Department of Financial Services to create Bakkt Trust Company, a qualified custodian, the Bakkt Warehouse will custody bitcoin for physically delivered futures.” 

Where to buy Bitcoin?

Coindirect.com offers a global platform to purchase Bitcoin using credit cards, crypto, bank transfers and other localised payment methods.

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