If 2017 was the year of ICOs and a marked growth in Bitcoin’s and altcoin’s price, 2018 was the one with two huge market crashes. The world’s leading cryptocurrency went from being worth almost $20,000 to the $6,000 range in a matter of weeks at the beginning of last year, and it experienced a similar fate towards the end.
Prior to Bitcoin Cash’s hard fork, precisely on November 14th, Bitcoin started collapsing and went from trading at near $6,500 to bottoming out at below $3,200. It has struggled to surpass $4,000 ever since. It is fair to say that BTC holders are not having their best days as investors.
Right now, after another drop below the $3,600 threshold in the past few days, BTC is making yet another run at the $4,000 barrier. And while the road back to its pre-collapse levels is uncertain, analysts have begun to take a positive approach and are predicting a favorable outlook, most precisely, towards the end of 2019.
Short-Term Volatility
In the short-term, the possibility exists that Bitcoin keeps sliding because the previous sell-offs were intense. Altcoins are projected by some experts in the industry to fall a little further in the coming days and weeks. Analysts see BTC even dropping below its lowest mark in the last 12 months, which is $3,122, as part of the last stage of a bear market that has lasted an entire year.
However, these analysts see BTC recovering by 2019’s end. According to Crypto Technical Analyst, Eric Thies, BTC will probably start moving up near the end of the year in similar fashion of the events that took place in 2015.
“Similar to 2015, 2019 may be the year of accumulation,” were his words, even in the case that Bitcoin starts trading as low as $2,000 in the coming days and weeks, or if it keeps struggling to reach $4,000 in the very short term.
When we talk about days and weeks, Thies anticipates an extension of a bear market. However, when the conversation turns into months, the expert remains quite optimistic about an eventual reversal of fortunes.
A Contrasting View
Willy Woo, a famous crypto researcher, stated that the on-chain volume of Bitcoin is still quite low to take as a suggestion of a bottom establishment. The expert observed that the recent market collapse resulted in a volume increase, but it did not show signs of the start of an accumulation period.
“Despite the technical setup that suggests bullishness is possible, there’s not a lot on-chain volume to fuel a prolonged up move. What we saw in the last 7 weeks was a spike of on-chain volume driven by volatility, coins moving to exchanges to trade. The initial volume spike false signaled a faster ‘detox’ and an earlier end to the bear market, but in fact it was a volatility side effect. That move from $6k to $3k created immense trade volume, but it was in no way a signal that accumulation volume had begun,” he said.
The road back for Bitcoin may take months, which is the expected timeframe for it to show evidence of accumulation in the crypto exchange market and OTC trading platforms. Until that happens, further weeks of volatility are expected.
By Andres Chavez
