Bitcoin price prediction: Cryptocurrency market will see '5,000 per cent gains' over next decade, claims expert

2018 has seen heavy losses for digital currencies, but this could be about to change

Bitcoin is set to celebrate its 10th birthday this week, with 31 October marking 10 years since the publication of a paper describing an "electronic cash system."

Since that time, the price of bitcoin has yo-yoed from almost $20,000 to less than a cent. So what does the next decade hold for the price of the world's first cryptocurrency?

The Independent spoke to cryptocurrency experts and analysts to hear their predictions for the coming weeks, months and years.

$20 trillion market by 2028

Since bitcoin's inception nearly a decade ago, more than 3,000 other cryptocurrencies have emerged. Of these, only a handful have actually managed to have any significant impact, and none have managed to reach the same heights as bitcoin. But some analysts believe this is about to change.

Nigel Green, founder and CEO of UK-based financial consultancy firm deVere Group, forecasts bitcoin will soon face strong competition within a booming cryptocurrency industry.

“Bitcoin is what kickstarted the crypto revolution and it has changed the way the world handles money, makes transactions, does business, and manages assets, amongst other things, forever. It all began with bitcoin," he said.

“However, I believe that bitcoin’s influence and dominance of the cryptocurrency sector will drastically reduce in its second decade. This is because as mass adoption of cryptocurrency grows, more and more digital assets will be launched – by organisations in both the private and the public sectors. This will increase competition for bitcoin and dent its market share."

By Mr Green's estimations, today's $400 billion cryptocurrency market could reach the $20 trillion mark within the next decade.

"There’s an ongoing shift away from fiat money, and the momentum of this is only set to increase over the next 10 years," he said.

“The pace of mass adoption will speed-up and the cryptocurrency market cap can reasonably be assumed to reach at least 5000 per cent above its current valuation over the next decade... As such, the market will have grown beyond recognition when bitcoin celebrates its 20th anniversary."

A steady increase over time

Bitcoin is notoriously volatile, having seen a 2,000 per cent price increase in 2017 followed by a 65 per cent decrease so far in 2018.

Since early September, however, bitcoin has traded consistently at around $6,500, only ever fluctuating by a few hundred dollars.

This trend has been helped by a lack of destabilising news in the cryptocurrency space, together with broader consensus on how to address some of the technological challenges facing bitcoin.

The notoriously volatile price of bitcoin has stabilized in recent months (CoinMarketCap)

Should such a trend continue, cryptocurrency expert Iqbal Gandham, who works for the online trading platform eToro, believes the price of bitcoin will see steady gains over the coming years.

"Bitcoin has shown great resilience over the past decade. It managed to ride the wave of volatility and has started to address questions regarding scalability," Mr Gandham told The Independent.

"Its price, although volatile at times, will fall in line with other assets as its utility increases and speculation reduces. The next decade could see Bitcoin being accepted as the norm when it comes to money transfer and payments. As with any startup idea, early days are always risky, but I feel these are now few and far between."

$10,000 by the end of November

A new tool that forecasts the future of 15 leading investment choices puts bitcoin on a strong upward trajectory over the coming month.

Using an algorithm to chart the market performance of cryptocurrencies, commodities and companies, How Rich Would You Be? forecasts bitcoin to hit $10,104 by November 18 – a 60 per cent increase from today's price.

Such a dramatic gain most likely reflects the huge price surge experienced by bitcoin in the final months of 2017, where its value rose from $6,000 to $20,000 between early November and late December.

The biggest short-term gains, however, are expected to come from other cryptocurrencies like bitcoin cash and ethereum.

Using the same price prediction tool, ethereum is forecast to rocket by 282 per cent by mid-November, taking its value up above $750.

"The future predictions reveal that the cryptocurrencies will experience the highest percentage increase, yielding more profit than commodities or companies," a spokesperson for the tool said in an email to The Independent.

"Despite the unpredictability of the cryptocurrency market, the historical data shows that, when compared against commodity and company investments, EOS, Bitcoin and Ripple boast three of the top five investments."