The currency sparked a major resurgence after its market value reached an unprecedented high of $41,000 (£30,000) on January 7, before enduring its worst decline in 10 months a matter of days later. Economists and experts have warned that due to the volatile nature of the currency’s value, investors should be cautious when opting to finance Bitcoin moves. Yet, others – including value investor Bill Miller – claim that the currency will only get stronger, as the price of Bitcoin rises.
Mr Miller stated that as it was still in the “early stages of the adoption cycle”, volatility will always come with the currency, but as it gets stronger, the risk associated with investing in it will drop.
He explained that Bitcoin’s total supply is building at less than two percent a year, and that it was “obvious by the price that demand is growing much faster than that”.
Talking to The Exchange on YouTube, the founder and chief investment officer of Miller Value Partners said: “As long as that obtains, Bitcoin is likely to go higher and perhaps considerably higher.
“I think that Bitcoin… should probably be up 50 percent to 100 percent from here in the next 12 to 18 months.
“And if you were to ask me over or under, I would definitely say it would be much more likely to be higher than lower.”
Despite this positive opinion, the likes of Gerald Moser – chief market strategist at Barclays Private Bank – continued to argue against investment in the currency.
Speaking after Bitcoin’s peak this year, he concluded that it was “nigh on impossible to forecast” its price, making it “almost uninvestable from a portfolio perspective”.
According to Financial News, Mr Moser added: “With spikes in volatility that are multiples of that typically experienced by risk assets such as equities or oil, many would probably throw the cryptocurrency out of any portfolio in a typical mean-variance optimisation.”
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Bitcoin investors themselves remain upbeat, with influential cryptocurrency figures Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss suggesting the price will only continue to go up.
Cameron predicted eventually a Bitcoin’s value could rise to around a “pretty conservative” $500,000 (£367,000), arguing the “game hasn’t even really started”.
He said that the likes of MicroStrategy and other firms buying “significant amounts of Bitcoins” for their treasury reserves showed that investors were now ready to make their moves.
Speaking on the What Bitcoin Did podcast, Cameron added: “What if every Fortune 100 or 500 company does that, what if central banks start doing that? It hasn’t even started.”
He added in October: “Wall Street is not here yet. Institutions aren’t in Bitcoin right now.
“It’s been a retail phenomenon for the last decade. So Wall Street talks about it, they’re aware of Bitcoin, but they’re not really in it from our perspective, but it’s starting to happen.”
Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) warned about Bitcoin: “If consumers invest, they should be prepared to lose all their money.
“Some investments advertising high returns from crypto assets may not be subject to regulation beyond anti-money laundering.
“Significant price volatility, combined with the difficulties valuing [Bitcoin] reliably, place consumers at a high risk of losses.”
Express.co.uk does not give financial advice. The journalists who worked on this article do not own Bitcoin.