Bitcoin (BTC), Cryptocurrency–While the crypto markets see a slight reversal in pricing to round out the final week of December, with Bitcoin creeping closer to $3700 after hitting a relative low earlier in the week, predictions on the outlook of the industry for 2019 continue to sour investors.
Last week, as reported by EWN, billionaire crypto investor Mike Novogratz lamented the state of the cryptocurrency markets throughout 2018, claiming in a conference call that,
“It’s been a horrible bear market in tokens. There’s plenty of reason to be depressed.”
However, Novogratz qualified his statement with some positive spin, reminding investors that coin prices may be down but adoption and general acceptance for crypto and blockchain has been on the rise throughout the year. Despite his crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital Holdings posting over $130 million in losses through 2018’s bear cycle, Novogratz remains confident in cryptocurrency extending into 2019 and beyond,
“I fundamentally think you’re going to see big adaption in 2019, 2020. Lots of the items in the digital world, the e-gaming space, are low value items so I think people will be more comfortable participating in blockchain. We’re making big investments in that area.”
While Novogratz, a long time Bitcoin bull and supporter for cryptocurrency, remains hopeful for a market recovery into next year, traditional financial outlets have fond more reason to be cynical. In a year end, opinion-based review for 2019 predictions, Bloomberg opinion column has struck a chord in crypto investors by publishing more of the FUD that has become part and parcel among mainstream publications.
Rounding out the top of the list for “egregious predictions of 2018,” the opinion piece by Barry Ritholtz lambasts Bitcoin and the litany of assumptions that were made at the start of the year in the midst of a bull run,
“The spectrum of predictions ran from the sublime to the criminally negligent to the utterly insane. It got so bad that a website was set up to track all of the Bitcoin prophesies.”
The article continues on to call out Fundstrat’s Tom Lee and the aforementioned Mike Novogratz for their predictions throughout the year,
“Fundstrat’s Tom Lee’s 2018 forecast for $25,000 Bitcoin was reduced last month to $15,000 by year-end. (The cryptocurrency recently traded at about $3,650.) As foolish as that sounds, it was modest compared to the rest of the asylum. Michael Novogratz forecast that ‘$40,000 was possible by the end of 2018.’”
While Bitcoin continues to trade close to a relative low for the year, with the digital asset slipping from near $20,000 in December 2017 to $3600 as of writing, the schadenfreude for BTC and cryptocurrency in general is mounting. From a combination of FOMO and “I told you so,” traditional finance analysts are lining up to cast stones at the number one cryptocurrency by market cap, despite failing to predict a similarly bullish run for the coin just a year ago.
Investors, still reeling from the losses of 2018’s ongoing bear cycle, have little to be excited for as we enter the final month of the year. However, they have managed to weather the storm of Bitcoin hate and claims of BTC “being dead,” which has led to the creation of websites tracking the obituaries for the coin. Time will tell if the current crop of predictions for the demise of Bitcoin will be added to the heap.
