Bitcoin is the most successful Cryptocurrency around the world in every respect, be it trading value, volume, or market cap. Bitcoin price has been the subject of many a conversation over the past 12 months, thanks to its insane rise in value and the subsequent drop. What does the future hold for the price of a Bitcoin?
Current statistics
As it currently stands, Bitcoin is being traded at a value of $9,387.40 (as of this writing) per BTC. That’s an increase of 1.77% over the past 24 hours. Currently, Bitcoin has a market cap of $169 Billion, and in the last 24 hours alone, Bitcoins worth $26 Billion have been traded.
The thing with Cryptocurrency statistics is, they get outdated every hour, which is why there are websites dedicated to updating the latest prices of crypto-coins. One such is CoinMarketCap where you can see a lot of real-time information.
-
Market Cap refers to the total value of all the Bitcoins existing in the world
-
Volume refers to the number of Bitcoins traded in the last 24 hours, along with their total value. This number currently stands at more than 500,000 BTC worth about $3.3 Billion
-
Circulating Supply is the number of Bitcoins that are available in the world right now. So far, around 18 Million Bitcoins have been mined
-
Max Supply is the maximum number of Bitcoins that will ever exist. Note that the max supply of Bitcoin tokens (21 Million) is far less than some other cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin Price trends
Take a look at the Bitcoin price chart over the past 8 years.
Bitcoin held a fairly low, steady price up until the end of 2017, when it suddenly sky-rocketed. Let’s take a closer look at the past 12 months instead.
Bitcoin prices soared to almost $20,000 per BTC in January 2018. But soon afterwards, the price began to drop again, with inconsistent highs and lows throughout the past few months. However, unlike other cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin has managed to retain some of its value. Where other currencies such as Ethereum are dropping every month, Bitcoin has refused to drop below $6,000, and has been constantly fluctuating between the $6,000 to $8,000 mark over the past many months. Should this trend hold up, it could spring-board the next spike to a point much higher than $20,000.
An interesting thing to note is that almost 85.5% of all Bitcoins have already been mined, with mining speed increasing rapidly. It will only be a matter of time before all 100% (21 Million) BTC are mined. When that happens, it will perhaps be a major event in the history of Bitcoin. Basic principles of economy states that when supply stops and demand grows (due to hype and extensive media coverage at the 100% mark), Bitcoin price is expected to skyrocket in a fashion similar to the January 2018 spike.
So, what does this mean? Cryptocurrency by nature is very uncertain and an insecure investment. And there is no knowing where the price might go in the foreseeable future. We can’t say for sure that Bitcoin prices will increase in the next year or so, but there are some very strong evidences in favor of that argument. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
