Bitcoin will hit $40,000 in a year! But beware, have small exposure

Leveraging for bitcoin in anticipation of humungous return indicates heightened greed in the crypto-currency market.

Data available with Google Trends shows people around the world are searching ‘buy bitcoin with credit card’ with Nigeria and St Helena being among top searchers for these words.

It is followed by United States, Canada and South Africa. India holds 15th position on that list.

Search for these five words is at an all-time high on Google Trends ..

This is evident from the fact that San Francisco-based company Coinbase, one of the most popular platforms for trading in crypto-currencies, was having 13.3 million users as of November 26, 2017 against 10.60 million two months ago.

Google measures the search result on a scale of 0 to 100, where 100 is the maximum search interest for the time and location selected. At present ‘buy bitcoin with credit card’ is hovering at 100.

Bitcoin zoomed past the $10,000 mark on Wednesday from nearly $1,000 on January 1, 2017. Those who support the fundamentals or logic behind bitcoin’s dream run are highly bullish on the e-currency. The unit has soared more than 900 per cent in 2017 so far amid increased institutional demand for crypto-currencies.

Billionaire hedge fund legend Mike Novogratz believes bitcoin price will ‘easily reach’ the $40,000 mark by 2018.

“Bitcoin could be at $40,000 at the end of 2018,” he said on CNBC’s Fast Money programme. He advises small investors not to put more than 1 to 3 per cent of their net worth in crypto-currencies, while high net worth investors can invest 5 to 10 per cent in this space.

Greed is definitely there in the market for bitcoin. One should note that return will not be that huge in the coming months, warned Hesham Rehman, CEO and Co-Founder at Bitxoxo.

One should also note that bitcoin cannot be purchased through credit card in India, though it is possible to do so in select countries around the world. “It is not possible to buy bitcoin through credit card in India,” Rehman said.

Sandeep Goenka, co-founder, Zebpay, said, “We advise investors to invest in bitcoins in a systematic manner.”

On the other hand, some of the critics call the surge in bitcoin a big bubble, even bigger than dotcom bubble of late 1990s.

Deutsche Bank recently joined the ranks of those warning against the virtual currency as an investment.

“I would simply not recommend this to the everyday investor,” Reuters quoted Ulrich Stephan, chief strategist at Germany’s largest lender, as saying.