Both financial experts and crypto fans are always thinking about how Bitcoin’s price is doing, which isn’t a surprise at all. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin were the first, biggest, and most well-known ever made. Its input and power in the crypto industry are unmatched, as shown by the data that is available. It has an effect on how the prices of other crypto assets change. Many traders and investors are still interested in Bitcoin because of its past value growth and investment potential. A lot of people want to know how to buy Bitcoin and make money.
It is important to think about the future when evaluating different financial tools. The problem with people always being worried about how Bitcoin’s price will move in the future is that no one can give them clear answers. Even the smartest experts can’t tell what will happen next with this asset because it is so uncertain.
Each analyst has different expectations, so it’s impossible to set exact price goals, but there are usually two options: bearish and bullish. So, will Bitcoin reach new highs or fall below its current price in the coming months? Let’s look into these two different directions and decide which one makes the most sense.
Towards new price highs
A number of well-known people in the business world have given more than positive price forecasts for Bitcoin. Cathie Wood, the founder and CEO of Ark Invest, ignited the market with her prediction that Bitcoin could rise more than 5,800% and reach a price of $3.8 million per unit by 2030.
Michael Saylor, one of the richest people in crypto and co-founder of the business intelligence company MicroStrategy, also made big predictions about Bitcoin. He thought the price could reach $13 million by 2045. These rather extreme predictions show how certain some people are about Bitcoin’s potential for growth.
You can’t be sure that Bitcoin will ever reach these prices. What would need to happen for the price of the original coin to really go up, though, is a very specific set of factors coming together. Issues with the conventional banking system, according to Nicholas Sciberras, a senior analyst at Collective Shift, could be a major factor in Bitcoin’s potential growth. He mentions the 2023 bank crashes to warn that while things have calmed down, the factors that caused them may persist and cause more crashes.
Let’s assume that the banking crisis recurs in 2024, exerting pressure on national economies. To boost the economy, governments would have to print more money or take other measures. It is likely that both choices would lead to higher inflation. With a hard cap of 21 million coins and four splitting events built into its system to control the number of coins issued, Bitcoin would be a better way to protect against inflation and traders and investors would be more interested in it. In a strange way, an asset that is known for being unstable and hard to predict would be seen as a safer and more reliable choice.
The recent growth of the network’s usefulness is another thing that supports the bull case for Bitcoin. Not too long ago, the only uses of Bitcoin were for payments and investments. People often said that this limitation and the idea that Bitcoin isn’t keeping up with new technology were two of its biggest problems. In the past few years, however, the Bitcoin network has changed a lot. For instance, the addition of the BRC-20 token standard and the Ordinals protocol enables the use of Bitcoin-based NFTs.
These new features expand the blockchain’s use cases, attracting more individuals to the Bitcoin community. The Bitcoin blockchain has better future chances because more and more people want to use it. Also, the Lightning Network (LN), a layer-2 solution built on top of Bitcoin to fix scaling problems, could make it more popular as a way to pay, which could lead to more people using it and, ultimately, higher prices.
Remember that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) at the start of the year. The investment goods have been getting millions of dollars since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved spot Bitcoin ETFs. This could make Bitcoin more valuable in the long run.
The flip side of the coin
While Bitcoin seems to be performing well, its volatility remains high, and we shouldn’t rule out a bear market just yet. One big worry about Bitcoin’s future is that the block payment will go down with each split event, which could make the network less safe. Since awards are going down, smaller miners might lose interest and stop mining, which means there will be fewer people working to keep the Bitcoin network safe and secure.
The potential effects of newer features like inscriptions on the blockchain’s functionality are also a topic of current discussion. With this function, information about files like pictures, videos, music, or text can be saved on the Bitcoin blockchain and attached to each Satoshi. Others say that ordinals could cause problems and slow down the network’s progress, even though many people agree that they could lead to more stable fees and bigger earnings for miners.
Two more sets of factors that could hurt Bitcoin’s price are political events and worries about the environment. People who care about the environment are still saying that Bitcoin is not sustainable, and governments are planning to put heavy taxes on mining activities. These outside forces could cause Bitcoin problems in the future.
Final considerations
We still don’t know if Bitcoin is going to go up or down. There is no doubt about the asset’s potential, but there are also risks that come with it. A variety of internal and external factors will determine the path Bitcoin will take in the coming months and years, so traders and investors need to stay vigilant for market trends and changes.