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BTC / USD forecast: Can bitcoin reverse downward trend as crypto winter bites?

BTC / USD forecast: Can bitcoin reverse downward trend as crypto winter bites?

Since its November 2021 all-time high, Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, has lost over 70% of its value, in line with the broad cryptocurrency markets. The harsh crypto winter was sparked by surging inflation, risk-off sentiment amid recession fears and the crash of the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin.

Will the cryptocurrency pioneer ever resurface? We take a look at the key factors driving the BTC/USD forecast in 2023 and beyond.

What is BTC/USD?

BTC/USD is the exchange rate of bitcoin against the US currency. BTC to USD measures how many USD are required to purchase one bitcoin.

Created in 2009, Bitcoin, the first ever decentralised digital currency, acts as a peer-to-peer payments system. It uses no central authorities or banks to manage transactions, which are instead organised “collectively by the network”.

The cryptocurrency was invented  by an anonymous person or group of people under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. It has since established itself as one of the most popular digital assets. The first ever BTC token, the so-called genesis block, was mined in January 2009.

Bitcoin’s blockchain uses a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism, which is secured by miners verifying BTC transactions in exchange for BTC reward. The process is known as crypto mining.

These rewards are cut in half after every 210,000 blocks are mined, or approximately every four years, in halving events, thus reducing the amount of overall BTC coins in circulation and raising the cryptocurrency’s price by cutting supply.

The most recent halving event took place on 11 May 2021, when bitcoin’s block reward was reduced to 6.25BTC. The next halving event is estimated to take place in 2024.

In addition to being a “peer-to-peer version of electronic cash” bitcoin is also now used as a store of value. Bitcoin has a maximum supply of 21 million tokens.

BTC/USD price history

It has taken BTC to USD around eight years to surge past $1,000 since its launch in 2009. In 2017, the cryptocurrency saw a good run, rising by 1,600% within a year from $1,044.4 at the start of January 2017 to $17,760.3 by 20 December 2017 – a then all-time high.

However, a steep sell-off at the start of 2018 interfered, bringing the bitcoin’s price down to $7,637.86 by 8 February 2018. BTC continued to decline falling to $3,000 by 10 December 2018.

The cryptocurrency peaked once again in the beginning of July 2019, surpassing $12,000 for a brief time before losing over 58% of its value and dropping to $5,000 by 13 March 2020.

BTC/USD RATE 2017-2022

In 2021, the cryptocurrency enjoyed another bull run, the biggest in its history. By 8 January 2021, the token was valued at around $ 39,000. On 16 April 2021, bitcoin reached its first peak at $63,258.51 – a surge of around 62%. BTC’s price continued to rise, reaching the all-time high of $67,549.74 on 9 November 2021.

In 2022, the coin has been experiencing one of the harshest crypto winters yet, losing nearly 72% since the November 2021 highs, and is currently (12 October) hovering at $19,000.

What’s shaping the BTC/USD forecast?

The cryptocurrency market has been affected by a number of factors in 2022 such as with the war in Ukraine, the collapse of the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin and rising inflation. Peter Eberle, president and chief investment officer of Castle Funds, told Capital.com:

“The first half of 2022 was horrible for equity, bond and crypto markets. A confluence of macro factors such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, US Policy makers’ slow realisation that inflation was real, then the aggressive pivot to higher interest rates, supply chain issues due to China’s Covid polices all led to a steep sell off across markets.”

Eberle added that Terra’s “meltdown”, which led to the subsequent fall of its sister cryptocurrency, LUNA, “created cascading liquidations across multiple platforms”, affecting not only the BTC/USD price but also several hedge funds, including Three Arrow Capital and Celsius Network.

On 9 June, bitcoin briefly traded above $31,000, however, this soon turned into a selloff, which saw the cryptocurrency lose over 90% of its minor gains, falling to $19,000 10 days later. Since then, BTC has been fluctuating, trading between $23,000 and $19,000.

“At the end of the 2nd quarter many in the industry were waiting for the proverbial ‘next shoe to drop’, but fortunately things calmed down,” Eberle noted.

Anndy Lian, chief digital advisor at the Mongolian Productivity Organisation and author of NFT: From Zero to Hero, said that bitcoin’s price depends on the outcomes of the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) meetings and decisions on monetary policy tightening, as well as latest inflation readings such as Producer Price Index (PPI) and the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

“However, I am not pessimistic. The mining companies have endured tough times. Despite the high hash rate, bitcoin’s price has not significantly increased. This signals that the miners are not piling the network to obtain big gains on bitcoin, they are confident that the mining business will do well now that the network has proven staying power.”

Historically, October has been a good month for cryptocurrencies, with bitcoin’s price change averaging at 14.6% gain in October since 2011, Capital.com’s seasonality research showed. Yet this year proves to be different.  Castle Fund’s Eberle noted:

“The third quarter of 2022 showed consolidation in the crypto market while equities and bonds continue to slump. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 6.2%, Bitcoin dropped 2% but saw significantly lower volatility and the broader crypto market capitalization increased by 8.5%.”

Bitcoin to US dollar forecasts are currently focusing on macro events, Eberle added, specifically the Fed’s interest decisions, the future outcomes of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the US midterm elections that are due to take place on 8 November. In addition, Eberle added some historical outlook concerning bitcoin’s past halving events:

“In 2015 BTC bottomed 547 days before the halving and in 2018 is occurred 517 before. The next halving is estimated to happen in April or May of 2024 so if history repeats we should be nearing the beginning of the next bull market.”

BTC/USD forecast 2022 and beyond

Despite the latest downward price action, algorithm-based forecasting service Wallet Investor gave a bullish BTC/USD forecast at the time of writing (12 October). The site noted that BTC was “a very good long-term investment”.

Based on its analysis of past price performance, WalletInvestor predicted that BTC/USD could trade at $25,373.90 in 2023 and surge to $47,496.74 in 2027.

DigitalCoinPrice supported the positive BTC/USD forecast but saw a speedier pace of growth in the following years, expecting the cryptocurrency to reach $24,206.47 by the end of 2022 and $43,340.43 by the end of 2023.

Its BTC/USD forecast for 2025 showed the cryptocurrency reaching $77,238.07 on average and $94,929.40 in 2027. The platform’s long-term BTC/USD forecast for 2030 expected the cryptocurrency to surge to $266,189.92 on average.

Lian did share the bullish sentiment on BTC to USD forecast:

“Bitcoin price hovers around $19,400, up 1.9% in the last week. Zooming out, it has gained 1% in value for the past 30 days. Unless we see the S&P 500 go down to 3200, bitcoin can go below the $13,000 region, else I think it will continue to trend sideways for the next few weeks.”

However, Lian noted that a positive aspect to highlight would be bitcoin’s hash rate which continues to surge.

Note that BTC/USD predictions can be wrong. Analysts’ and algorithm-based predictions shouldn’t be used as a substitute for your own research.

Always conduct your own due diligence on the stock before trading, looking at the latest news, a wide range of analyst commentary, technical and fundamental analysis. Note that past performance does not guarantee future returns. And never trade money you cannot afford to lose.

 

Source: https://capital.com/btc-usd-forecast-dollar-bitcoin-price

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

www.anndy.com
j j j

Short Bitcoin ETF: Is BITI a good hedge against the crypto winter?

Short Bitcoin ETF: Is BITI a good hedge against the crypto winter?

Additional comments:

BITI is designed to give investors a way to profit from declines in the price of Bitcoin. It is the first U.S. fund of its kind. On hearing this before the launch, I know many naysayers were piling into this ETF to short Bitcoin. This also resulted that this vehicle is now the second-largest bitcoin-themed ETF (behind BITO) in the U.S. market with just a few days of trading.

The challenge with a short ETF is timing the market. At this moment of time, I think this ETF started off slower than expected as Bitcoin started climbing back to over $21,000. If they were to be launched in November when Bitcoin hits its all-time high at $69,000, then perhaps you will see more influx of investors jumping in.

Analysts also told me that if investors also bought into BITO and BITI, and if you time right to follow the market’s momentum, you will still be a winner. I agree and disagree with this strategy as timing is the key factor to this.

I have always thought that a spot-based Bitcoin ETF product will be launched first. By seeing another derivatives products launched before the spot-based product, this reinforces my thinking further. I think the regulators are worried about subscriptions of the spot product because they know it will be popular. That is why they approved futures-based ETF, thinking that most risk-conscious investors are unlikely to buy the futures-products. Well, based on the trading figures, I still think the demand is there and it is rising.

Will history repeat itself? Only time will tell.

 

Short Bitcoin ETF: Is BITI a good hedge against the crypto winter?

ProShares has launched another bitcoin-linked exchange-traded fund (ETF). This new instrument is shorting the coin amid the wider cryptocurrency bear market.

The ETF issuer previously launched a bitcoin futures ETF BITO when the cryptocurrency was enjoying record highs and risk-on sentiment was prevailing.

Both funds trade futures contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). The difference is only between their short and long positions.

What is a short bitcoin ETF, and what is the long-term sentiment on its performance?

What is ProShares bitcoin ETF?

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a basket of securities that tracks an underlying index or instrument, if it’s passive, or it could be actively managed with fund managers picking stocks based on their analysis and financial modelling. ETF prices fluctuate throughout a trading session as they are sold and bought on an exchange.

ETFs typically contain bonds and stocks but more recently have ventured into cryptocurrency territory. Cryptocurrency ETFs were highly anticipated by the community as they aim to boost liquidity and the adoption of digital assets in the world of investing.

In order for an ETF to be established, the company willing to create a fund must file a proposal with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A bitcoin ETF is made up of bitcoin or instruments linked to its price. How does it work?

In theory, bitcoin tokens would have been purchased by the company that owns the fund, securitised and sold or traded on an exchange. But, the SEC is yet to accept such a proposal. The underlying assets in bitcoin ETFs are linked to bitcoin futures contracts traded on the CME.

A futures contract is a standard contract where two parties agree to exchange a specific quantity of assets on a specific day for a certain price. A bitcoin futures contract is an agreement between two sides for the exchange of a contract unit of bitcoin.

Bitcoin short ETF explained

Similarly to BITO, the ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF, BITI, trades in futures contracts on the CME. The difference is that BITI is a short bitcoin ETF, meaning that it trades short positions. BITI allows investors to profit from the falling price of the cryptocurrency, which could be used as a part of a hedging strategy.

“BITI affords investors who believe that the price of bitcoin will drop with an opportunity to potentially profit or to hedge their cryptocurrency holdings. BITI enables investors to conveniently obtain short exposure to bitcoin through buying an ETF in a traditional brokerage account,”  ProShares CEO Michael L. Sapir said in a statement on 20 June 2022.

The fund tracks the nearest maturing monthly bitcoin futures contract trading on CME and is a rolling index, meaning that the index operates in accordance with a set of predetermined rolling methodology. In BITI’s case, the roll occurs over a five-day period every month, effective prior to the opening of trading and preceding the last trading date of the futures contract.

The last trading date for bitcoin futures contracts is the last Friday of the contract month. The index rolls monthly and distributes the weights 20% each day over a five-day roll period.

BITO has a gross expense ratio of 0.97% and a net expense ratio of 0.95%.

Are you wondering how to buy short bitcoin ETF? As ETFs are bought and sold on an exchange, bitcoin ETFs can be purchased via online brokers and most trading platforms.

For those investors who prefer to put their money in a mutual fund, which trades only once a day,  ProShares’ affiliate mutual fund company launched a Short Bitcoin Strategy ProFund (BITIX), which has the same investment objective as BITI.

“With the additions of BITI and BITIX, ProShares and ProFunds will be the only fund families in the US offering funds that allow investors to express their view on the direction of bitcoin—no matter whether they believe the price will go up or down,” Sapir noted.

Short BTC ETF analysis

It is important to note that investing in a futures-based bitcoin ETF is not a direct investment in the cryptocurrency because the fund tracks CME BTC futures – contracts speculating on the future price of BTC rather than bitcoin itself. Investors should be aware that the price of the ETF could be different to the price of the cryptocurrency itself.

The introduction of the new short bitcoin ETF had “many naysayers were piling into [it] to short bitcoin”, said Anndy Lian, best-selling author of Blockchain Revolution 2030 and chief digital advisor to the Mongolian Productivity Organisation.

What is your sentiment on BTC/USD?

“This also resulted that this vehicle is now the second largest bitcoin themed ETF (behind BITO) in the US market with just a few days of trading.”

According to Lars Seier Christense, chairman of the Concordium Foundation and founder of Saxo Bank, “such reversed price-action investment products are well known in the traditional finance sector, and are typically used for hedging.

“Typically, they cater for investors in markets where shorting is difficult, or where they would not have a relationship with their brokers allowing them to short or where margins of such short positions are very high,” he added.
“I believe such a vehicle could become quite popular for hedging and shorting purposes, being easier to invest in than outright shorts.”

However, Lian also highlighted that the key challenge when trading short ETFs is timing the market. He told Capital.com:

“At this moment in time, I think this ETF started off slower than expected as bitcoin started climbing back to over $21,000. If they were to be launched in November when Bitcoin hit its all-time high at $69,000, then perhaps you will see more influx of investors jumping in [now, as the token has been going down].”

Dan Hoover, Director at Castle Funds,  explained that the futures market in which BITI trades uses CME-listed futures, which close for an hour a day Monday through Thursday, and on Friday until Sunday (Chicago time). BTC can be bought and sold 24/7.

“This delay can create some unexpected price action in the futures as the prices ‘catch up’ to market news in Asia, especially over the US weekend. Additionally, BITI only trades on US trading days, which is even narrower than CME futures trading (9:30AM – 4PM NY time, M-F, observing most major holidays),” Hoover added.

Other competitors are spot or physically-backed bitcoin ETF projects. But, they have been pending SEC approval for a few years now.

“These ETF’s could be used to replicate the BITI strategy much more efficiently, as they avoid the compounding risks of the inverse ETF and the carrying costs of the underlying futures,” Hoover noted.

Short BTC ETF forecast

Within a day after its launch, BITI had risen to $41.3 on 22 June, up 3.6% from closing at $39.84 the day before. The fund has pulled back since and is currently (29 June) trading at $39.81.

Source: TradingView

Analysts appear to have mixed feelings on how the short bitcoin ETF will perform, as it was launched at such an uncertain time for cryptocurrencies and BTC.

In a note published on 21 June, Laith Khalaf, head of investment analysis at AJ Bell, noted that “bitcoin isn’t behaving particularly unusually and losses of this magnitude are to be expected, especially after periods of equally extreme price appreciation.”

According to Khalaf, this is not the coin’s worst performance and BTC has suffered worse “crypto winters before and come back to have its day in the sun”.

“The popularity of short BTC ETF’s, such as this latest iteration from ProShares, highlights quite how bearish a run the cryptocurrency market has been on. Short ETFs are suddenly popping up more often, as Bitcoin struggles to find a bid,” Invezz’s data analyst Dan Ashmore told Capital.com.

Long-term, Ashmore is bullish on bitcoin, however, in the short and medium-term, the ETF could perform well as the US Federal Reserve is still struggling to tackle rising inflation and a tight geopolitical situation, according to the analyst.

Saxo Bank’s Christensen agreed with Ashmore, noting that the ETF could be interesting for short-term trading.

“Unless the BTC community is completely wrong about higher levels for BTC longer-term, it would clearly not have a great investment in its own right, but more suited for short-term speculation and hedging of crypto portfolios,” he added.

Note that analysts’ predictions can be wrong. Forecasts shouldn’t be used as substitutes for your own research. Always conduct your own diligence, and remember that your decision to trade or invest should depend on your risk tolerance, expertise in the market, portfolio size and goals.

Keep in mind that past performance doesn’t guarantee future returns. And never invest or trade money you cannot afford to lose.

 

Original Source: https://capital.com/short-bitcoin-etf-explained

 

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

www.anndy.com
j j j

BLOCKCHAIN EXPERT SHARES HIS OPTIMISM AMID ONGOING ‘CRYPTO WINTER’

BLOCKCHAIN EXPERT SHARES HIS OPTIMISM AMID ONGOING ‘CRYPTO WINTER’

Anndy Lian is a blockchain executive and author who gave his insights this week regarding the current ‘crypto winter’ marked by the downturn in the virtual asset market.

This Singapore-based chairman of cryptocurrency trading platform BigONE Exchange expressed his upbeat stance despite the market drawdown investors worldwide feel across the board.

We want to share this report with our readers about Mr. Anndy Lian’s hopeful viewpoints despite the present ‘crypto winter.’ We believe we can mitigate their worries, especially if they are adversely affected investors.

Crypto winter is a period when virtual currencies’ trading prices sharply drop, and investors do not see any recovery in sight for more than one year. This time spurs paranoia that the notoriously volatile cryptocurrency industry is about to undergo another prolonged slump.

Additionally, crypto winter indicates a steep decline in virtual coin prices followed by a prolonged flat trading period. The most recent crypto winter took place around 2018.

During that period, Bitcoin rallied to approximately US$20,000 prior to an estimated two-year slide that witnessed it plummet to under US$5,000.

Lian, who wrote the best-selling reference, “Blockchain Revolution 2030,” published by South Korea’s largest bookstore chain, Kyobo, remarked that the Terra crash had doubled down on investors’ fear that the sharp meltdown in the virtual currency market could be longer-lasting and not transitory, much like the US inflation’s steep surge.

This virtual asset collapse drew in confident crypto-asset newcomers, making it quite astonishing. Lian added that the new investors felt enticed partly due to the high level of well-known venture capitalists pouring their investment funds into the cryptocurrency startup and its stablecoin offering.

The Mongolian Productivity Organization’s chief digital advisor mentioned that cryptocurrency commentators were already noting the first signals of crypto winter. These signs are led by Bitcoin’s fall from grace this year.

The flagship cryptocurrency, which trades at exactly US$29,273.97 at the time of writing per the information posted on Coinmarketcap.com, is down from its spectacular US$69,000-high in November 2021 to US$33,000 in January this year.

In Lian’s article posted on blockchain and cryptocurrency news source Forkast News, he remarked that the final nails in the coffin consist of the recession risk following the tapering off of trillions of US dollars injected into the United States’ economy and the US Federal Reserve System getting serious about raising interest rates.

He added the record-busting inflation rates in the world’s largest economy complement the implosion of UST and Terra’s LUNA in dragging down the already ailing crypto-asset market.

Nonetheless, Lian cited that he believes the cryptocurrency and blockchain space would likely become stronger from the present market downturn. He also said that these industries would eventually be more innovative and integrated with mainstream retail and financial ecosystems.

Lian mentioned investing’s fundamental tenets as well. He cited that retail investors should only invest what they can afford to lose, get involved in the cryptocurrency investment scene with a lucid plan, and be careful with crypto-assets’ inherent volatility.

He also said that investors should not invest too much as a component of their overall investment portfolios. We appreciate Mr. Lian’s views about the crypto winter.

We understand that many virtual currency investors feel perturbed these days. However, we hope they will take Mr. Lian’s perspectives and advice.

We are on the same page as this blockchain professional. We also believe the current crypto winter will not last, and better things are ahead for cryptocurrency investors.

 

Original Source: https://cryptofrontline.com/blockchain-expert-shares-his-optimism-amid-ongoing-crypto-winter/

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

www.anndy.com
j j j