A study conducted by Finder.co.au in Australia saw experts in the financial market forecasting the year-end Bitcoin price in the $7,500 to $9,000 range.

As of February, the price of BTC hovers at around $3,500. An increase from $3,500 to $9,000 would be equivalent to a 157 percent rise in value within less than ten months.

Why Experts Remain Positive on the Long-Term Outlook of Bitcoin

Executives at investment firms, individual investors, and fintech experts are generally positive on the long-term trend of Bitcoin because of various short-term catalysts that may fuel the market

In the first quarter of this year alone, ICE’s Bakkt is expected to launch a Bitcoin futures market in the U.S. and the Fidelity is said to offer cryptocurrency custody.

Activities by large-scale financial institutions in a bear market can increase the confidence of investors that have become uncertain about the future of the asset class.

Digital Capital Management COO Ben Ritchie said:

Two things to look out for in 2019 will be whether we will see decoupling of the cryptocurrencies, as to date they have trended in a relatively similar manner. The second is the impact of the traditional markets on cryptocurrencies. Will bitcoin rise if the S&P drops? On-ramp and off-ramps to purchasing cryptocurrencies will improve in 2019 with Bakkt and Fidelity Group entering the market. However, I do not believe we will see many institutional investors enter for some time yet.

Ritchie provided the highest prediction on the year-end price of BTC at $9,000 while other fintech experts forecasted BTC to end the year at around $7,500.

Similarly, all experts said that BTC will likely experience a slow grind up, demonstrating a low level of volatility throughout the months to come.

If BTC initiates a gradual climb to the $7,500 to $9,000 range throughout the next 10 months, it may cause cryptocurrency exchanges a wide range of problems.

Already, exchanges in major markets such as Japan and South Korea are struggling in dealing with a substantial decline in the daily trading volume of the cryptocurrency market.

Some exchanges have reported that the volume on their trading platforms has fallen by over 90 percent. If the market moves slowly in an extended period of time, it could spell trouble for exchanges that rely on transaction fees as their main source of revenue.

Crucially, in Australia, Finder.com.au and HiveEx.com co-founder Fred Schebesta said that a growing number of millennials are adopting cryptocurrencies.

It is estimated that more than 1.1 million Australians are invested in the cryptocurrency market. In 2018, around 1 percent of adults in Australia were said to have invested in the asset class. As of 2019, reports show that up to 6 percent of adults have invested in the cryptocurrency space.

Schebesta said:

Millennials are particularly open to embracing crypto in order to accumulate wealth for themselves. They’ve grown up with digital technology, so it’s little wonder they want to get involved in digital currency. They are looking at investing very differently to their parents.

What Could Push Bitcoin Higher in 2019?

With the groundwork laid out by Bakkt and Nasdaq, some investors expect institutions to come in by the third quarter of 2019.

Currently, institutions are waiting out due to uncertainties in regulatory frameworks and in the asset class itself.

“I’ve been too optimistic about the pace of institutional adoption in the past. It’s coming, but I can’t estimate which quarter (Whether that’s this year or 2022) that we’ll see a big spike. As a humble guess, something like q3 2019,” Ari Paul, the CIO at BlockTowet Capital, said.

But, as billionaire investor Mike Novogratz said, institutions are not in a hurry to invest in the cryptocurrency sector.

As large financial institutions and companies in the cryptocurrency sector present more regulated and well-maintained investment vehicles, the probability of institutions entering the space is expected to increase.

Click here for a real-time bitcoin price chart.

Featured Image from Shutterstock. Price Charts from TradingView.