Bitcoin could surge 100% in 2021, investors believe

January 11 2021
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While some investors are feeling uneasy after bitcoin more than doubled in value in less than a month, others predict it could hit US$100,000 per coin over the next several months.

Bitcoin could surge 100% in 2021, investors believe

Bitcoin took 11 years to steadily climb to US$20,000 a coin for the first time in 2017, but its current growth trajectory has seen the popular cryptocurrency add a further US$20,000 to its value in a matter of days, raising questions about its stability.

In 2017, bitcoin’s growth spurt ended in sell-offs, which eventually saw the cryptocurrency crash, but this time around, investors are predicting a lasting growth, which could remove some of its riskiness.

On Friday afternoon, bitcoin was trading over US$40,000 per coin.

And according to Henrik Andersson, co-founder and CIO of Apollo Capital, the price growth is testament to bitcoin’s increasing recognition as a digital store of value.

“With central banks around the world running the money printers at full speed, sophisticated investors increasingly see the absolute scarcity of bitcoin as an attractive hedge,” Mr Andersson told nestegg.

He believes it’s not unreasonable for bitcoin to reach a price of between US$50,000 to US$100,000 during this “bull market”, but advised Aussies to do their own research and be comfortable with the risks.

“At some point we will see pullbacks; that is natural in any market.”

Similarly, Miller Value Partners founder Bill Miller recently told CNBC that he sees bitcoin surging as much as 100 per cent in 2021, if not higher.

As such, the seasoned investor opined that his peers should consider holding 1 to 2 per cent of their portfolios in bitcoin instead of cash, noting that “it’s more a risk management strategy than anything else to have a little bit of money in bitcoin”.

“One of the things that’s interesting about bitcoin is that it gets less risky the higher it goes, and that’s the opposite of what happens with most stocks,” Mr Miller told CNBC.

But in saying that, Mr Miller cautioned that bitcoin’s volatility is not going away.

“I think there have been three corrections of 80 per cent, which is normal in this type of very, very early technology with a very, very big total addressable market.”

“I think if you can’t take that, you probably should not own bitcoin,” he said.

Key difference who’s buying

Back in November, when the price of bitcoin hovered around US$18,000, a blockchain analysis company, Chainalysis, said the key difference between the cryptocurrency’s latest surge and that seen in 2017 is who’s buying the bitcoin and why.

In 2017, most demand came from individual, retail investors buying with their own personal funds, many of whom had varying degrees of experience with and knowledge of cryptocurrency. 2020, however, is the year institutional dollars began flowing into bitcoin.

“From high-profile investors like hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones, who compared buying bitcoin to investing early in Apple or Google, to corporations like Square, which invested $50 million or 1 per cent of its total assets in bitcoin, mainstream companies and financial institutions are turning to bitcoin,” Chainalysis said at the time.

The company continued: “If bitcoin can continue to be an effective hedge against macroeconomic trends, we believe more and more institutional investors will put money into the asset, leading to even more mainstream adoption.”

About the author

Maja Garaca Djurdjevic

Maja Garaca Djurdjevic is the editor of nestegg and Smart Property Investment. Email Maja at [email protected]

About the author

Maja Garaca Djurdjevic

Maja Garaca Djurdjevic is the editor of nestegg and Smart Property Investment. Email Maja at [email protected]

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