In the past few days and weeks the sparrows had already whistled from the rooftops that the Bitcoin rally before the end of the year – and probably one in the coming year. The first is indeed in full swing. After the oldest crypto currency exceeded the record value of 19,666 dollars from 2017 at the end of November and has since scratched the mark of 20,000 dollars in vain, it was not only exceeded on Wednesday: yesterday, Thursday it went to over 23,000 in one burst Dollars (18,869.47 euros). A high of $ 23,777 was marked on the Bitstamp trading platform.
Since March, when this year's low was marked at 5,000 dollars, the value has increased almost fivefold. Other digital currencies such as Ether or XRP were initially unable to follow the rise, but recently rose again.
Attention boost
Bitcoin has benefited from several developments for some time. On the one hand, interest in digital currencies seems to have risen again in the past few months after a lengthy lull. This also has to do with the fear of high inflation as a result of the extremely loose monetary policy of many central banks – although critics warn to feel safe with Bitcoin.
A primary reason for the attention is given that the large payment service PayPal wants to enable its more than 325 million customers to pay with Bitcoin and other crypto currencies. Last but not least, it is attributed to this event that more and more professional investors such as larger asset managers or family offices are interested in the crypto market. In the past few weeks, some US companies have also announced that they will be investing tens to hundreds of millions of dollars of their liquidity reserves in Bitcoin.
Volatility remains
In all the observers, there is also a significant difference to the first hype three years ago, which was often borne by private investors. Since institutional investors have now also discovered Bitcoin as an investment and a possible alternative to gold, Bitcoin fans are hoping for a less volatile price development for Internet currencies. So far, however, the hope of a calmer price development has not come true. A sharp rise in the share price in November was followed by wild price capers – for critics a decisive reason why digital money is unsuitable as a means of payment and as an investment.
Extreme forecasts
Against this background, it is striking that the latest price jump is due to a hedge fund that otherwise specializes in volatility bets. The One River hedge fund announced on Wednesday that it had discreetly invested $ 600 million in cryptocurrencies through November. Eric Peters, head of One River, told Bloomberg that he plans to increase his exposure to Bitcoin and Ethereum to $ 1 billion by early 2021. “There will be a generation allocation to this new asset class,” predicted Peters. “The capital flows have only just begun.”
It is estimated that only 0.2 percent of the wealth of the super-rich are held in Bitcoin. This leads to adventurous forecasts. The CIO of Guggenheim Partners, Scott Minerd, said on Bloomberg TV: “Our fundamental assessment shows that a Bitcoin should be worth around $ 400,000.”
