First- I wish I invested early and other hand, glad I never invested...this is from a very "ignorant" crypto follower.
But, I do ask- bitcoin is in the 17k area now- what would be the next 2 year projection?
And after all the SBF crap- is there a real future or does he crash it all down?
Another thought from me and would love to hear opinion- and I ask because over the years, I really wanted to get into it...why does it feel like crypto is just Musk's playground. It seems that he uses it at his will and he is the market changer.
So for starters SBF did not crash it all down. In a messed up way, he actually helped Bitcoin in a few ways. First off, the amount of paper bitcoin (Bitcoin that does not really exist) that was on FTX is no longer. Eliminating an exchange that allowed aggressive leverage on paper (or imaginary btc) is a very good thing. It's part why if Binance goes down it could be a net positive. The paper Bitcoin suppressed the btc price. The second major positive off SBF's fraudulent actions is that they have shined a light on bullshit tokens and coins who's value was artificially inflated, which is causing crypto investors to think twice before investing in altcoins. It's a big reason why I never pulled the trigger on purchasing Solana. So leverage flush out & altcoin hesitancy will greatly help btc going forward.
Yes I wish I invested early. I had the early software on my computer to mine in the early days. I never did anything with it. There were also sites giving away Bitcoin early on. I was too impatient to figure out the wallets and passwords. And truthfully, had I mined or received btc back then, I would 100% have lost access to them. Moral of the story is it's never too early IMO. I got in during the covid crash and have purchased from 6 or 7k all the way up to 60k. MY cost basis right now is around 18k. I've been taking this time to DCA and average down. Again, there's no such thing as too early.
The reality is that digital payments, crypto currency and Bitcoin are not going anywhere. It's like saying in 1999 that this internet fad is over. And yes, there were major headlines declaring that,
So here we are in this weird holding pattern. The major negative of FTX is that it spooked institutions from getting involved, and truthfully, it's tough for them to do so. They're not going to hold bitcoin in cold storage where only a few people have access to it. It will have to be a third party like Coinbase to hold bitcoin for institutions. There is insolvency fears with every major exchange. This is where regulation will help. And regulation will help in a spot etf being created.
There's no true guidance on this, which makes a lot of tradiotnal investors and institutions hesitant on purchasing btc. When guidance (and hopefully the right guidance, not bullshit put forth by a fraud like Sen Warren) happens it will open the door for more people/institutions to enter the space.
So fast forward to your 2 year price projection. I think Bitcoin will trade in the 15k - 23k range for the next year assuming we hit a full on recession and the macro environment remains. When the dust settles I think we will see rapid move up. Lightning Network adoption will continue to amplify this in the next two years, as retail realizes they can accept digital payments on the network for near-zero fees. Apple Pay and Google pay integration will be a big part of that when that happens. And i'm glad you mentioned Elon. Twitter will become a Venmo like transaction service in the future. It's coming. It was part of his initial plans pre-ebay. What does that mean? You've now taken Xhundred million users on Twitter and gave them an easy onramp to Bitcoin. Tipping Twitter users via lightning is already enabled.
Two years from now is tough to really answer. We could be looking at a perfect storm of events for Bitcoin. Good regulation, bringing in more investors/institutions and a spot ETF. More adoption and advancement of the Lightning Network as a payment network and mechanism to move money globally in seconds.
(Side note on that. Lightning allows for currency exchanges using the Bitcoin network. For example, it has the capability of sending US Dollars to anywhere in the world and have it converted to a native currency in seconds. USD >converted to bitcoin> converted to Lira, Yuen, Peso or whatever currency is desired at the output stage. This happens in realtime, so price volatility is negated. And the cost amounts to maybe a penny on the dollar)
So you're combining those with the halving slated to occur mid-2024 and you now have the incoming btc supply that gets mined every 10 minutes being cut in half. Currently, every 10 minutes 6.25 new bitcoin are mined. That number will be cut down to 3.125. Essentially every four years the numiber gets cut in half. Demand estimates, given a spot etf approval have essentially shown demand accounting for over 50% of new Bitcoin mined after the next halving, so in essence new supply entering the market will be cut in half again.
I really dont know where price will be in two years. Im confident it will be higher than it is currently. The only price prediction I'll make is that we're looking at a $1 million coin this decade.
Take that for what its worth, I continue to put $$ into Bitcoin every chance I get.