200 bitcoins hacked from Electrum wallets It's been a bad year for bitcoin. After the highs of 2017, which saw the price of bitcoin surged to $20,000 (£15,700), the world's most valuable cryptocurrency is currently trading close to its lowest point in 16 months."200 bitcoins hacked from Electrum wallets"





Bitcoin has fallen by 3 percent over the last 24 hours, adding to losses of 5 percent in the last week, 10 percent in the last month and almost 80 percent over the last year - leaving little doubt that last year's peak was indeed the result of an over-inflated bubble.

There has been five major price surge in bitcoin's 10-year history, and after each previous crash, the market has managed to recover to even higher levels. But the scale of the 2018 losses has left some cryptocurrency experts questioning whether bitcoin will once again see a market turn-around.





Predicting bitcoin BTC fortunes in 2019 has therefore divided analysts, with forecasts from high-profile figures within the cryptocurrency industry ranging from a complete capitulation to a 10-fold increase from today's price of $3,650.





The most radical price predictions come from bitcoin cash founder Calvin Ayre and Fundstrat co-founder Thomas Lee. Mr. Ayre predicts bitcoin will become completely worthless and crash to $0 in 2019, as it has "no utility."





According to Ayre, bitcoin BTC will be superseded by a more technologically advanced cryptocurrency that functions better as an actual currency, such as bitcoin cash BCH.





On the other side Mr. Lee, whose price predictions about bitcoin BTC have been proved to be wildly optimistic in the past. As recently as November, Mr. Lee predicted BTC would hit $15,000 by the end of 2018, but appears undeterred by more price falls in his forecast that bitcoin could hit $36,000 in 2019.











Those positive about bitcoin's future point to the general progression of the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry over the last 12 months, with one analyst suggesting bitcoin is currently undervalued.





"In my opinion, a current time is great to purchase bitcoin BTC," blockchain adviser Olver Isaacs told The Independent. "Bitcoin's surrounding infrastructure has never looked better. Along with the likes of Coinbase wallet, Cirlce, and Blockchain, huge traditional financial institutions are stepping into the crypto market."





This is a sentiment shared by Misha Libman, co-founder of blockchain technology art laboratory Snark.art, who puts bitcoin's price volatility down to the nascency of the industry.





"Ultimately we are dealing with new technology and a new asset that is highly speculative, illiquid and elusive, and drivers for its rise and fall is anyone's guess," he said. "But without a doubt, I believe that blockchain and cryptocurrency have a big place in our future and the roller coaster volatility that we are seeing today is something we have to live with for a while until we will start using cryptocurrency to buy chewing gum."





"For those feeling nostalgic for the excitement they felt about bitcoin BTC boom at the end of 2017, keep the faith," added Donald Bullers, who works for blockchain firm Elastos.



