[2018-01-09] Bitcoin could ‘easily double’ in 2018, says Fundstrat’s Tom Lee

[moriskarlov]

One of Wall Street's biggest bitcoin bulls says the cryptocurrency could "easily double" or even triple in 2018.

In August 2017, Tom Lee, co-founder and head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, predicted bitcoin's rally above $10,000 and declared that the digital currency would outperform equities through the end of the year. Sure enough, bitcoin rallied to a high near $19,800 in December, with its performance widely outpacing stocks.

Since that high, however, the cryptocurrency has fallen 25 percent, trailing stocks, gold and oil, which are up a respective 3 percent, 5 percent and 10 percent during that period.

Despite the drop, Lee is still pounding the table on the cryptocurrency.

"Even on a risk-adjusted basis, I think bitcoin is going to easily outperform the S&P," Lee said Tuesday on CNBC's "Futures Now." "On a long-term basis, [the easiest way to look at bitcoin is] as a replacement or a store of value," he said. "So as millennials discover and generate income, they're going to use it as a replacement for gold."

Investors have quipped that the bitcoin boom could be taking market share from gold. Over the last year as bitcoin surged about 1,535 percent, gold has been tethered around the $1,300 level.

"If [bitcoin] gets 5 percent of the gold market, that's roughly $50,000," he added. That's a more than 200 percent move from where bitcoin is currently trading.

On a near-term basis, Lee expects bitcoin to reclaim its December high. "We think that by mid-2018, we're going to be part of the way there, and that's why we get [bitcoin to $20,000]," he said. "If [bitcoin] can actually rise close to [that $20,000 level] in the first half of this year, I think in the second half of 2018, we'll see a move bigger than that," Lee said. "So I think bitcoin is still something you should own [all year]."

Despite its underperformance in the past month, bitcoin is still up 15 percent in the first few days of 2018.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/09/bitcoin-could-easily-double-in-2018-says-fundstrats-tom-lee.html

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[Lucius]

I agree that BTC has potential to double price in 2018 even start of the year does not look promising,but price around 30 000$ by the end of this year look realistic possible.Some other investors like Mike Novogratz also predict even bigger price(40 000$), but also big correction to 20 000$ after that.

In this moment many potential investors in BTC choose some other altcoins like ETH which is flying high these days,so large amounts of money leave from BTC in other directions.Unfortunately high fees and big number of unconfirmed transaction will be big brakes for serious progress of BTC,many small players are simply pushed aside.Some say this year will be in sign of bigger adoption of SegWit which is good news,and also LN knocking at the door.

[Taki]

How many times bitcoin doubled itself in the last year? From 1000 to 2000, then to 4000, then to 8000, then to 16000$ and raised even higher. So, the last year it happen 5 times raise. I am agree with all of those predictions. I expect this year bitcoin will double it's price at least ones and come to 40000$ per 1 BTC. Bitcoin is amazing and I do not care about all this prediction about it's popping and disappearing (negative predictions), cause of meanwhile bitcoin gives me such good opportunities to earn on it's not stable price I am going to be here as long as I can.