[2017-10-02]BTC could be heading to $6k by year-end but brace for volatility

[aysha9872]

Bitcoin could be heading to $6,000 by year-end but brace for volatility, experts say

Bitcoin could rally nearly 40 percent to hit $6,000 before the end of the year but investors should brace for more volatility, according to industry experts.

The cryptocurrency was trading around $4,333 on Tuesday.

The third quarter has been one of the most eventful in bitcoin's history. It is up over 74 percent in the September quarter, with a shifting landscape in regulation and developments in the underlying technology taking place in the last three months.

Here's what has happened so far and what experts think is coming next.

Infighting and split

Bitcoin faced record-high transaction times due to congestion on the network. To solve that, the amount of data that could be processed in one transaction needed to increase. But the community was divided on how to solve this.

This resulted in a "fork" earlier this year that split bitcoin in two. Bitcoin remained, but a new crytocurrency called bitcoin cash was created.

On the core bitcoin network, an upgrade known as SegWit2X was implemented, which would help increase the transaction speed. The full back story can be read here.

Bitcoin's market cap is about 10 times that of bitcoin cash. Since it started trading at the beginning of August, bitcoin cash has risen to nearly $900 before falling to current levels of around $402, according to Coinmarketcap.com.

Shift of power to Japan

China was once the dominant driver of the bitcoin price. But regulators in the country have been cracking down on the cryptocurrency, banning so-called initial coin offerings (ICOs) where companies raise money through cryptocurrencies.

China's major bitcoin exchanges OKCoin, Huobi and BTCChina have halted trading for customers on the mainland. At the start of the quarter, Chinese yuan accounted for around 17 percent of bitcoin trade globally, according to industry website CryptoCompare. By the end of the quarter, it was less than 3 percent.

Meanwhile, Japan has been more open to cryptocurrencies. Regulators there legalized bitcoin and major retailers have begun accepting it as payments. And last week, Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) officially recognized 11 companies as registered cryptocurrency exchange operators.

CNBC reported that major Japanese banks are looking into creating their own digital currency called the J-Coin, with backing from major institutions.

Record high

The third quarter also saw bitcoin hit an all-time high of $5,013.91, according to data from CoinDesk.

Regulatory support in some markets, as well as rising interest from institutional investors, has helped boost the value.

$6,000 bitcoin in sight?

"Throughout the year we've been predicting the bitcoin price will surpass $5,000 and creep closer to $6,000 by year's end. That prediction is looking more in line with market sentiment these days," Thomas Glucksmann, head of APAC business development at Gatecoin, a cryptocurrency exchange, told CNBC by email.

But he warned investors to get ready for more volatility in November. This is because some in the bitcoin community might move to reject SegWit2X. This could create another split in bitcoin, and potentially create another cryptocurrency.

Charles Hayter, CEO of industry website CryptoCompare, said that bitcoin could hit $5,000 by the end of the year. This will be supported by increased regulation to cryptocurrencies and ICOs.

"Bitcoin's biggest price catalyst is regulation. Japan has breathed life into the price and as the fog of uncertainty clears in other jurisdictions, clarity on regulation will release a break on the price," Hayter told CNBC by email.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/03/bitcoin-price-heading-to-6000-brace-for-volatility-fork.html

[1Referee]

What's the deal with these volatility 'warnings'? I have seen plenty of them in local news articles too in the last months. Volatility has been part of Bitcoin basically since its very first exchange listing, and now suddenly it starts to be something people should prepare themselves for? What a nonsense. Aside from that, it's definitely a possibility for the market to touch the $6000 level, but only when we deal with the hard fork appropriately, and that's when enough miners take distance from this hard fork. If there are malicious miners willing to let it go through, and I definitely believe they are present, then they are 'free' to fork off - they will not let an opportunity to make millions worth of crypto instantly slip, that's guaranteed.

[LegendaryMembership]

we need more voulme, more new investor & of course we need biggest name maybe like kim jong un 

[TravelMug]

We all know about volatility and we have been embracing it eversince. Maybe the target of his article are those new investors who are trying to get into the market. Volatility is what we love about bitcoin, and even if the price sink, its still a opportunity to us. And Japan no doubt is the dominant force behind bitcoin because China has left us.

we need more voulme, more new investor & of course we need biggest name maybe like kim jong un 

He maybe secretly buying bitcoin. Didn't we heard that they are mining crypto's and the country was able to survived from the embargo against them by the West. New investors would come in, I speculate that they would join after the Nov hardfork.

[iamTom123]

What's the deal with these volatility 'warnings'? I have seen plenty of them in local news articles too in the last months. Volatility has been part of Bitcoin basically since its very first exchange listing, and now suddenly it starts to be something people should prepare themselves for? What a nonsense. Aside from that, it's definitely a possibility for the market to touch the $6000 level, but only when we deal with the hard fork appropriately, and that's when enough miners take distance from this hard fork. If there are malicious miners willing to let it go through, and I definitely believe they are present, then they are 'free' to fork off - they will not let an opportunity to make millions worth of crypto instantly slip, that's guaranteed.

Maybe these warnings are meant for newcomers and not really for people like us who are used to Bitcoin's regular volatility. Actually without volatility, I don't think many of us here would be in Bitcoin as this is one of the most attractive feature of Bitcoin though it might not be for merchants (so there is the rub!).

In fact, we now associate the word volatility to cryptocurrency especially Bitcoin. People who are not born yesterday are just shrugging off volatility as it is part and parcel of the Bitcoin game. Nothing shocking anymore with this. Now, authors and people who are new to Bitcoin should learn to deal with this and after some months it would just like drinking a cup of coffee.

Welcome to volatile world of Bitcoin!

[kjlimo]

We are certainly happy when volatility means we can see upside potential, but folks who are trying to use it as a currency are disturbed by volatility when it means they don't have the purchasing power they thought they have (probably only disturbed when it goes down I imagine...).

The struggle for bitcoin will remain as it continues to be stuck between two worlds (a store of value and something to trade for goods and services).

I suspect folks dealing with currencies experiencing high volatility read news stories of the same warning, but many folks deal with large currencies where volatility only affects international exchange rates which affects admittedly a smaller subset of folks dealing across boarders... those folks probably read currency volatility warnings regularly, but they aren't on the front page?

And I'm guessing bitcoin's level of volatility is higher than all of the above references for sure given our "small" adoption rate thus far compared to country currencies... this, too shall pass!!! 

What's the deal with these volatility 'warnings'? I have seen plenty of them in local news articles too in the last months. Volatility has been part of Bitcoin basically since its very first exchange listing, and now suddenly it starts to be something people should prepare themselves for? What a nonsense. Aside from that, it's definitely a possibility for the market to touch the $6000 level, but only when we deal with the hard fork appropriately, and that's when enough miners take distance from this hard fork. If there are malicious miners willing to let it go through, and I definitely believe they are present, then they are 'free' to fork off - they will not let an opportunity to make millions worth of crypto instantly slip, that's guaranteed.

[imsotiredofmoviereboots]

Well, I was expecting another record for bitcoin which is reaching the $10,00 value by the end of the year but $6000 ain't bad after all. It's good to see that btc is recovering now and resuming it's bullish moment.