Bitcoin’s future is seemingly always up for discussion, and as such, five experts in the space have given their polarizing thoughts on what’s to come

Bitcoin price prediction has always been a tricky game, and it is often left a lot to guessing especially in times of real lows, as well as of real highs. There are a number of industry experts that have put their heads on the block with some real high predictions, but in this bearish market, there are some more pessimistic ones.

Bitcoin at its high looked like it would never stop climbing, and as such, the likes of John McAfee said he would put his manhood on the price reaching $1 mln. But now that the price is near to a year-long low, the predictions have a different feel to them and a different explanation.

Five industry experts have spoken with TheStreet.com about where they see Bitcoin’s future in the near and a little longer term.

Only way is up, way up

Jim Blasko, founder of Bitcoin Talk Radio, has big ambitions for Bitcoin in the next year and a bit. Having topped $20,000, Blasko can see it adding 10 times that value by 2020 or early 2021.

Blasko predicts anything from $1,000 to $2,000 for Bitcoin from its level of $6,500 now. His prediction is based on the technology’s mining reward changing from 12.5 Bitcoins per block mined down to 6.25 Bitcoins.

The reward being cut in half should increase the price of BTC, Blasko reasons, as each “halving” creates the “fear of missing out” spark that ignites parabolic Bitcoin price increases.

Supply and demand

Marshall Long, co-founder of eBoost, also makes bullish predictions about Bitcoin’s future, but perhaps not as bullish as Blasko’s ideals. Long also believes it is the halvening that will push the bullish trend as it happened in November 2012, and again in July 2016.

Long also forecasts a drop in regulatory uncertainty that — to a lesser degree — should slowly drive Bitcoin’s price higher. Long said: “Regulatory uncertainty will fall as regulators continue to step in and separately, we’ll continue to see an uptick in adoption that gives the appearance that Bitcoin has gone mainstream.”

No bad news

Michal K Jeoung, CEO of cryptocurrency asset management platform TrustVerse, is worried neither about the bearish place that Bitcoin finds itself in currently nor about negative press coming from places like China.

The TrustVerse CEO rather sees this lull in the price as a chance to pick up Bitcoin at a 75 percent markdown, adding that a meteoric price rise is around the corner.

Ether’s day is up

It has to be remembered that although Bitcoin leads the way in cryptocurrencies, there are other at play and at risk. Max Tsaryk, CEO at Blockchain-based content sharing platform ASQ Protocol, believes Bitcoin will be fine, but Ethereum could be in trouble as a market.

Tsaryk is worried that hacks on ERC tokens could have a dramatic effect on the usefulness and viability of the smart contract network. If these attacks were to break down the foundation of Ethereum through the ERC token, it could well cripple the second biggest Blockchain.

Long bearish winter

Nate Whitehill, co-founder and CEO at cryptocurrency news site Cryptoslate, is looking at the timelines. Bitcoin may be down, but it has only been so for 10 months. This seems an age in cryptocurrency time, but it is not really.

“Cryptocurrency prices may see a turnaround in the event of a 2019 Bitcoin ETF,” says Whitehill. “But the last bear run lasted several years and we are only 10 months into what may be an extended crypto winter.”