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Bitcoin Price Prediction – Forbes Advisor Australia
Bitcoin’s journey began in 2009, with the publication of the Bitcoin white paper by creator Satoshi Nakamoto. At first, BTC was valued at less than a cent.
Bitcoin’s early years were characterized by steady growth and periods of rapid price appreciation, known as “bull runs”. One of the biggest bull runs saw the price of BTC rise from $4,000 to $69,000 in November 2021. Over the past 18 months, BTC has risen from $16,000 to a new all-time high of $73,000.
However, there were also periods of uncertainty, as Sciberras underlines.
“During 2014 and 2017 we saw many proposed Bitcoin ‘forks’ that divided the Bitcoin community,” he says. Hard forks are changes to the underlying protocol of the blockchain network that essentially splits a cryptocurrency in two. These forks represented pivotal moments in Bitcoin’s history, with various factions in the community attempting to change the direction of BTC. Despite heated debates and a series of forks, Bitcoin has persisted in its current format.
“Bitcoin surviving these attempts to change is a critical factor in getting to where BTC is now, increasing its confidence and resilience,” says Sciberras.
“It has weathered many storms and attempts to change it, with Bitcoin forks now a distant memory, combining for less than 1% of Bitcoin’s total market capitalization.”
In June 2023, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, unveiled a plan to start a BTC-specific exchange-traded fund (ETF). Many other institutions followed suit, with WisdomTree, ARK Invest and others submitting their first applications or updating existing applications shortly after BlackRock’s announcement. In January this year, 11 ETF applications were approved for trading in the US, pushing the price of Bitcoin to a new all-time high of over $70,000. Since their inception, these ETFs have seen some of the largest inflows of any ETF in history, marking them as one of the most successful ETF launches ever.
Another distinctive feature of Bitcoin price history is the halving event, which occurs approximately every four years, and reduces the rate at which new coins are created. THE Bitcoin’s most recent halving occurred on April 20, 2024, when the Bitcoin blockchain surpassed block 840,000. Bitcoin’s issuance rate has now fallen to 3,125 BTC per block, bringing annual Bitcoin inflation well below 1%.
“We saw the price of Bitcoin rise significantly one year before the halving and one year after,” says Sciberras.
Many investors consider the halving to be one of the most significant factors influencing the price of Bitcoin. However, Sciberras is cautious.
“It is not yet clear how much the halving is valued or how important the event is in the grand scheme of Bitcoin’s price trajectory,” he says.
“There is a theory that the four-year halving event is not as significant as many think and that, instead, its alignment with external liquidity cycles is what makes it appear as a trigger for upward price movement .”
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