Daily Bitcoin News Update

Bitcoin prices drop on Friday, as yesterday’s market rally corrects. The BTC to USD rate has retraced to $9,895.91 at the time of writing, after crossing $10,000 yesterday.

Not much has changed in the past 24 hours. There has been no earth-shattering good news nor nerve-racking bad news. We are viewing the sideways swing as the customary price movement in this space.

In the meantime, however, we’re turning our focus to the longer term to predict which way Bitcoin prices will be journeying next. At least one revered market analyst agrees with us that BTC will be heading north.

Famous Venture Capitalist Tim Draper was on Bloomberg two days ago, sharing his thoughts on why Bitcoin will be worth a lot more than what it is today.




For reference, he’s the guy who predicted in 2014 that Bitcoin would hit $10,000 in three years. And it did!

This time, his prediction is way more outlandish, even by our insanely bullish standards. Draper predicts that a major part of today’s fiat currency market will be dominated by cryptocurrencies in the future. He identifies that the world market for fiat currencies is worth $86.0 trillion today.

If we go by his prediction and do some quick math on prices, Bitcoin turns out to be worth more than $100,000.

Chart courtesy of TradingView.com

Draper gives us at least three reasons in his very brief interview why he believes that Bitcoin is the future of currency.

It’s borderless. You could go to any country and use it. It’s not subject to the whims of a government. The supply is constant and the price is determined by free market demand. It’s banking the unbanked. You can bypass the traditional banking system, avoid surveillance, and get rid of hefty fees.

As for investment advice, Draper made it loud and clear.

“People ask me, ‘Are you going to sell your Bitcoin?’ And I say, ‘Why would I sell the future for the past?’”

(Source: “Draper Says the World Needs New Kind of Currency,” Bloomberg, February 14, 2018.)

Analyst Take

Bitcoin has come a long way since its birth in 2009. It has emerged as a popular alternative to fiat currency in certain parts of the world where fiat currency has lost value (take the example of Venezuela or Zimbabwe), or where banks are few and far between (for instance, the remote areas of Africa).

Likewise, in the developed world, governments and regulators are yielding to cryptos. Countries like the U.S., South Korea, and Japan have shown willingness to integrate Bitcoin and other cryptos into their financial systems by setting up regulated markets that may function freely and securely.

Tim Draper is personally invested in Bitcoin so his advice may seem biased. But consider our Bitcoin price forecast to be somewhat of an impartial take on Bitcoin since we have no skin in the game. Based solely on its fundamental growth, we see Bitcoin reaching our BTC target of $15,000 in 2018.