Bitcoin Price Forecast: Wall Street Strategist Predicts BTC Prices Will Double in 2018
Daily Bitcoin News Update
Despite the February crash, Bitcoiners bid farewell to February on a positive note. Granted, the price performance hasn’t been extraordinary this year, but the coming months promise to impress investors. At least, that’s what industry analysts are saying. According to one former Wall Street analyst, Bitcoin prices could double in the coming months.
Fundstrat Global Advisors Chief Tom Lee, who is a self-professed Bitcoin bull, believes that Bitcoin prices could hit $20,000 by mid-year. His prediction is based on the premise that Bitcoin prices have historically performed poorly in the months of January and February, but changed their course in later months.
This seems to have been the case in the past six out of seven years, and Bitcoin prices do tend to outperform in the following months.
Lee suggests that the Bitcoin price could see a growth spurt by mid-2018, which may continue into the latter half of the year. Lee foresees Bitcoin doubling in value by summer. For the full year 2018, Lee forecasts Bitcoin prices to hit as high as $25,000.
If you look at the BTC price history, Tom Lee’s prediction is not unfathomable. It’s not like Bitcoin has not seen this value before. At one point in December, Bitcoin did surpass $20,000 in price on U.S. exchange Coinbase. BTC price likewise averaged $19,000 on global exchanges through the December bull run. So his price target is not too far-fetched, after all.
Lee’s firm, Fundstrat, conducts market research and delivers analytical advice on cryptocurrencies. Lee has been overly optimistic about Bitcoin. Even when BTC prices nosedived in the January crypto crash, Lee came out and reiterated his $25,000 price target.
Tom Lee has likewise made another bold prediction. He foresees three major publicly traded corporations issuing their own cryptocurrencies this year. He mentions Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), saying that the companies could announce a strategy involving blockchain or cryptocurrencies. (Source: “Struggling bitcoin will double by midyear, Wall Street’s Tom Lee says,” CNBC, February 28, 2018.)
While we may not be on the same page as Lee regarding the names of the prospective companies looking to adopt crypto-technology, we do concur that the more organizations adopt blockchain, the more they validate Bitcoin’s superior status as a blockchain trendsetter.
Plus, Bitcoin’s recent upgrade involving the “SegWit” soft fork has increased its speed and lowered its fees manifold. It makes economic sense now for crypto users to once again be using Bitcoin as a medium of exchange.
Since the upgrade earlier this week, BTC prices are up about five percent. In the past 24 hours, however, Bitcoin prices have remained flat. The BTC to USD rate is up barely one percent since yesterday’s update, where we highlighted Bitcoin’s SegWit transactions setting a new record.
Chart courtesy of TradingView.com
Analyst Take
While our BTC target trails Tom Lee’s, our Bitcoin price forecast for 2018 is upbeat. We see SegWit adoption to be a key driver of Bitcoin demand this year. We foresee Bitcoin trading for $15,000 apiece in 2018.
