Prediction 2019 - BTC Price to Touch $23500 in 2019

2019 has not started with a not-so-bad note as the master is slowly taking off. But the ETF approval is taking longer than expected, which is making the cryptizens restless. The Chicago Board Options Exchange also halted the listing of Bitcoin Futures. Bitcoin has touched the $4000 mark for the first time in over a month. Even Tim Draper, a famous Bitcoin enthusiast and billionaire stated that in 2 years, Bitcoin would be everywhere and fiat currencies would become archaic. He even said by 2021, everyone would buy their coffee by making their payments in Bitcoins. Another big name got attached to the Bitcoin frenzy when Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX called Bitcoin "brilliant" in public and even said BTC is better than paper money as it can transfer value.

Even NASDAQ, the second largest stock exchange in the world has also vowed to launch Bitcoin futures in the first half of 2019. It is going to start on a good note as the digital assets platform, Bakkt is going to get introduced in the later part of the year. Bakkt has already raised $182.5 million and is supported by 12 partners including Pantera Capital, Boston Consulting Group, Galaxy Digital and many more. The owners of Galaxy Digital, the Winklevoss brothers recently stated in the Aske Me Anything(AMA) session that Bitcoin is the most likely winner in the long term. Very recently, some analysts from JP Morgan has predicted that Bitcoin might fall as low as $1,260 and banking or financial institutions might not benefit from blockchain for 3 to 5 years as the true value of cryptos is not proved according to them. Even South Korean R&D firm and Bitfury group have announced that it would launch Bitcoin mining centers in Paraguay, which is a part of Common Foundation's project also known as Grey Goose.
One of Bloomberg's column stated that there is a probability that FUD(Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) might loom over crypto space in 2019, where Barry Ritholtz called the prediction by experts wrong and absurd. Inspite of that also, analysts and enthusiasts kept their hopes high. Mike Novogratz said explicitly that he believes there is going to be big adaption in 2019, 2020 as he thinks there will be more participation from people in the blockchain space. Now that the state government of Ohio has announced that it is going to accept tax payments in BTC wherein the government has partnered with Bitpay to make this happen conveniently so that the bitcoins can be converted into dollars on behalf of the tax office. This is just a glimpse of the adoption rate going higher and higher.

BlockTower Capital, the main force in the crypto realm made a bet on Bitcoin a year ago recently made a bullish statement on Bitcoin's price. Michael Bucella, a partner at BlockTower mentioned that the recent dry spell running in crypto space and volatility might be the current scenario that's pulling it down but the distress cycle might come to an end very soon as the institutional players have expressed their ardent interest in purchasing cryptocurrencies