Last week our theme was “Can Regulation drive the next Bull Market?”
Our theme for this week is “Is this end of Bear market or Bull trap?“
All week long, Bitcoin’s price has been on the rise, giving hope to investors that the bear market could finally be over. In the last twelve months, Bitcoin’s price has been dropping, to as low as $3,000 per coin.
Breaking the $4000 price mark for the first time in months, has had a significant psychological impact on the crypto market. For most of 2019, the price of Bitcoin price has been hovering around the $3,600. On Saturday, Bitcoin climbed from $4,028 to over $4,100. Along with Bitcoin, just about every coin joined the rally. Ethereum jumped by 6.05%, Ripple (XRP) by 1.89%, EOS by 6.02%, Litecoin by 4.65%, Bitcoin Cash by 3.87% and Stellar by 3.92%.
This recent and sudden price jump, comes after some positive stories, floating in the news.
Earlier this week, Samsung confirmed that its flagship Galaxy S10 smartphone will feature an integrated secure cryptocurrency wallet. Currently, HTC’s Exodus 1 and Sirin Labs’ Finney also offer crypto storage features, but Samsung is the largest phone manufacturer to add crypto-storage options to its phones. Samsung’s new phone could give a boost to Bitcoin’s adoption.
Comments by tech heavyweights, Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, and Chinese billionaire, Zhao Dong and recent news about J.P. Morgan’s new cryptocurrency, are also some of the reasons Bitcoin has shown signs of recovery.
CEO’s of Tesla and Twitter, recently suggested that cryptocurrency, especially Bitcoin, as the potential to change the world. Their comments gave hope to the market.
Bitcoin billionaire Zhao Dong, said the crypto spring will come in 2020: “In the bull market, I don’t persuade people to buy Bitcoin, because it seems easy to make quick money but in fact it is not. Now in the bear market, I start to talk people into buying Bitcoin.”
While, Jamie Dimon, J.P. Morgan’s CEO, has bashed Bitcoin in the past, the bank’s chief has consistently said regulated digital currencies hold promise. The “JPM Coin,” a digital token that will be used to instantly settle transactions between clients of its wholesale payments business. Only a tiny fraction of payments will initially be transmitted using the cryptocurrency, but the trial represents the first real-world use of a digital coin by a major U.S. bank.
Earlier this month, Morgan Creek raised a $40 million cryptocurrency fund, backed by public pension funds. Eurex, a Germany-based derivatives exchange operated by Deutsche Boerse, is planning to launch futures contracts tied to digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Ripple (XRP). The University of Michigan’s $12 billion endowment plans to bolster its investment in a “cryptonetwork technology fund”, managed by American venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Digital behemoths that dominate the web are beginning to make moves in the crypto market. Facebook went from a complete ban on token related ads to developing its own stablecoin. While it has not been confirmed yet, the key focus of the token may be to enable remittance to and from developing nations with an integration into WhatsApp and FB Messenger. The Chinese government has partnered with Tencent on creating a blockchain security alliance along with 20 other public and private institutions to reduce occurrences of fraud, pyramid schemes and illicit financing in the blockchain space. AWS announced the launch of Quantum ledger services and managed blockchain implementations. The system currently offers one click solutions for launching private implementations of Ethereum and Hyperledger.
With all the positive developments, since the beginning of 2019, many are wondering if we’re seeing the beginning of the next Bitcoin bull run. For the first time after after 40 days, Bitcoin hit $4,010 on Tuesday. The trend is backed by an increase in transaction volumes, last seen nine months ago, in May 2018,. The increased volume, could mean that we will see continued gains for cryptocurrencies in the short-term.
This recent rally could be signaling the end of the bear market, that started in early 2018. We are still very early, with only 3% of the world owning cryptocurrencies. Imagine what’s going to happen when mass adaption comes along, and when everyone has a crypto wallet on their Apple and Samsung mobile phones.
Its difficult to imagine how a world with cryptocurrencies will actually develop, just like we couldn’t see how the Internet was going to change our lives, in the mid 90’s.
Whether the bear market is over or not is only a matter of time. In the future, you can expect prices to go much higher than their all-time high, in December 2017. The only thing you need is patience.
Ilias Louis Hatzis is the Founder & CEO at Mercato Blockchain Corporation AG. He writes the Blockchain Weekly Front Page each Monday.