The upcoming presidential elections in the United States may just be the thing Bitcoin wants right now. The domestic and foreign policies of the presidential candidate Donald Trump may increase the usage of bitcoin by three fold.Contrary to the speculations from all quarters, the value of Bitcoin has remained steady since mining reward halving. Those who were expecting a sudden increase in the bitcoin price are forced to hold back their digital assets as the market has disappointed them so far. But there is another silver lining around the corner, says a recent research report.Juniper Research, one of the leading market research and analysis firm based out of the UK has in a report titled “The Future of Cryptocurrency – Deep Dive Data & Forecasting 2016-2021” predicted the volume of bitcoin transactions to hit the roof in the later part of this year. The increase in bitcoin transaction volumes will possibly be driven by the increasing prospects of Donald Trump winning the presidential elections.
Bitcoin and the Wall
In his presidential campaign, Trump has been talking tough about renegotiating trade agreements with China and Mexico, which may include increased tariffs and other developments. In addition, he has also pledged to check immigration and remittances which followed his controversial speech about building a wall along the US-Mexico border. If these measures are indeed implemented by Trump, then people will start looking for alternative modes of remittance, which is Bitcoin.In addition to Trump’s threat against trade and remittance, other factors like weakening British economy following Brexit and the Chinese economic slowdown are also expected to contribute to increased bitcoin adoption among people. Compared to previous year’s $27 billion, the bitcoin transaction volume is expected to reach $92 billion by the end of this year. The increased bitcoin transaction volume is also expected to influence a further rise in the digital currency’s value.A leading financial publication quotes (from an interview) Windsor Holden, the head of forecasting and consultancy at Juniper Research saying –
“If a Trump presidency becomes more likely, then in the run-up towards that occurring, we would see the value of Bitcoin against the dollar increasing significantly, and we would imagine that there would be a significant amount of action on the exchanges that would be directly attributable to that,”
Donald Trump is known for his outspoken comments on the current geopolitical situation across the world. He has been voicing strong opinions against immigration, terrorism and outsourcing of jobs. He is currently contesting the former US first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the presidency.