Bitcoin
BTC
The bitcoin price has crashed 70% since hitting a peak of almost $70,000 per bitcoin in November last year, crumbling in the face of the Federal Reserve’s “brutal” interest rate hikes. The crash has wiped around $2 trillion from the price of ethereum and other top ten cryptocurrencies BNB
BNB
Now, Yassine Elmandjra, the top crypto analyst at Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Management, has said bitcoin is a “$28 trillion opportunity,” standing by a previous prediction the bitcoin price will hit $1 million per coin by 2030.
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“When we look at bitcoin’s potential, we segment it across several use cases—everything from it competing as a digital store of value, to a settlement network, to an insurance policy against arbitrary asset seizure,” Elmandjra told Bloomberg. “When you stack every use case one on top of another, you come to about a $28 trillion opportunity, which translates to more than a million dollars per bitcoin.”
Bitcoin supporters have argued that the cryptocurrency will eventually supersede gold as the world’s de facto store of value and inflation hedge, with bitcoin often referred to as “digital gold” due to its fixed supply and decentralized nature.
This week, the bitcoin and crypto community pointed to a shock new PayPal policy that was quickly reversed and JPMorgan’s decision to cut ties with rapper Kanye West as evidence of the need for “censorship-resistant money.”
“When you look at bitcoin as a strategic asset, non-sovereign, censorship-resistant money, competing against central banks and fiat currencies, bitcoin supply being capped at 21 million, I think there is an arms race—especially as we shift from the digital to the physical world—to be an asset independent of the traditional financial systems and traditional asset classes,” Elmandjra said.
However, Ark has this year dumped $75 million worth of Coinbase shares, giving up its postition as the crypto exchange’s third-largest shareholder. Coinbase stock has crashed along with bitcoin and crypto market, with Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong this week revealing a sale bombshell.
The technology and finance industries are though still inching toward crypto adoption. Google
GOOG
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“If the price recovers the $20,000 psychological level with a substantial trading volume in the next few days, bitcoin could test $23,000 next week,” Yuya Hasegawa, crypto market analyst at Bitbank, said in emailed comments.
The crypto and stock market has this week been boosted by data that showed the headline U.S. consumer price index (CPI) rose at an annual pace of 8.2% in September, compared with an estimated 8.1% rise.
“It had been another tough week for the stock market until the CPI, so the rebound will likely trigger unwinding of the recent risk-off sentiment, which could have a positive effect on the price of bitcoin,” Hasegawa said, adding: “Unlike last month, wherein the market expected inflation to slow down, the market has been anticipating a shock this time around, so although the price dipped initially, it was not deep enough to induce panic.”