Price predictions for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies can always be met with some degree of skepticism. A market correction was expected last year but very few predicted that Bitcoin would lose over 80% in 2018. Weiss Ratings has just released their predictions for the coming year and they are extremely bullish.
Starting out with the fact that 2017 was a great year for crypto investors and 2018 the complete opposite the forecast attempts to predict what is in store for 2019. The fundamentals for crypto in 2018 were extremely good despite the divergence in price action. Many countries opened their doors to crypto and regulatory frameworks to protect investors were rolled out across the globe.
Weiss forecasts are based on their trend cycles model and their crypto coin ratings model which rates the assets in terms of risk, reward, technology and adoption. The first prediction is that Bitcoin will become digital gold because it costs nothing to store, can be easily transferred, is very secure and cannot be confiscated by any government or regime. BTC is therefore considered the top digital store of value.
Looking back at previous bear markets in 2015 when Bitcoin lost a similar amount, Weiss predicts that BTC will recover stronger again despite so called experts repeatedly writing its obituary. In a big bear market most of the weak hands and newbie traders will have departed while the believers in the technology and long term investors will be accumulating more. As a result Bitcoin will rise up again to reach new all-time highs in 2019.
Altcoins Die Out As New Ones Are Born
Some of the altcoins are predicted to also rebound to make gains of 20 times but the report does not mention specific ones; “But among them, a select few with superior technology will get traction in the real world with increasing adoption. They will ultimately return to their all-time highs.”
A new kind of internet has been predicted, built by a few cryptos such as EOS, Cardano and Holochain which are mentioned. How it concludes these three will be the harbingers of greatness is a mystery when there are several others such as Ethereum, Tron, Neo, Iota and Icon doing similar things with the web. The creation of an internet 3.0 is the goal here but Weiss predicts that most altcoins will ‘eventually fail’. It also predicts that a number of new ones will enter the fray and make it to the top ten.
Ripple’s XRP and Stellar Lumens are predicted to disrupt the banking world but that will only be achievable if they are truly decentralized, which the former is not. Regardless, Weiss predicts that if Ripple can replace SWIFT it will become the world’s premier cryptocurrency.
Finally it claims that a number of Bitcoin copycats will fade away as there is no real need for them. Included in this list of soon to be dead coins according to Weiss are Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV and Litecoin.