In the second half of 2020, the popularity of cryptocurrencies, as well as their value, have grown significantly. In addition, a promising new sector of decentralized finance has emerged, the excitement around which resembles the “era of ICO”. In this article, we will figure out what surprises to expect from cryptocurrencies until the end of this year, and whether we should expect new price records from the leaders of the crypto market.
The period from September to December 2017 attracted the most attention to cryptocurrencies in the history of this industry. In just a few months, tokens showed an increase of hundreds and thousands of percent, and the cost records of that period have not been broken until now. And this year, for the first time, cryptocurrencies have the prerequisites to repeat this scenario. Against the backdrop of the global crisis, instability of national currencies and economic losses, cryptocurrencies look more and more attractive. The US Federal Reserve has printed trillions of dollars, further proving the value of limited-emission assets, including BTC and other cryptocurrencies. For comparison, if in 2017 investors were guided by greed and fear of losing an opportunity, now the growth in popularity of cryptocurrencies has much more serious reasons. After BTC fell to $3,800 in March, the price recovered very quickly and reached a two-year high of $12,000.
Viktor Pershikov from 8848 Invest advises not to expect a new “bubble” until the end of the year, but believes in the possibility of updating the annual highs of leading cryptocurrencies. For the growth of the crypto market to show parabolic dynamics, the participation of many institutional investors is needed, which has not yet been observed. LAZM CEO Philip Modnov insists on the need to overcome the $14,000 level in order to continue the strong growth of bitcoin. The crypto expert also does not expect a new explosive growth of the market until the end of 2020, and the most likely time for a new “to the moon” is April 2021 – exactly one year after the BTC halving. In addition, it should be borne in mind that one of the reasons for such attention to cryptocurrencies in 2017 was ICO. Many people remember how crude the projects were, however, they attracted serious investments. Since most blockchain startups were created on the Ethereum protocol, this had a very positive impact on the ETH rate, which reached $1400.
At the moment, a similar situation is created by DeFi projects, whose tokens grow by hundreds and thousands of percent in a matter of days after listing on decentralized exchanges. The most famous case is the YFI token, which grew by 100,000% in two months and became more expensive than bitcoin. But so far, this is a much smaller market compared to ICO, as even Google Trends data suggests. Do not forget about altcoins, which performed very well in the summer of 2020. Many experts are sure that it was the Altseason that led the entire crypto market upward. More importantly, many of the altcoins are backed by really serious projects, the development of which has a positive effect on the price of coins. In addition, altcoins have attracted a significant number of investors in recent months, due to the fact that investing in altcoins is less risky than investing in DeFi.
“The situation is now very good for the cryptocurrency market, with major coins approaching important market and psychological levels. If the value of BTC and ETH rises by 30%, it will be the beginning of a new very strong upward movement that could renew record price indicators. I cannot say that DeFi is moving the market forward, as they represent a fairly small market share. One thing is clear – in an economically unstable world, cryptocurrencies can become a real haven for many investors. This is the reason for their popularity in 2020“, – says Nikolay Shkilev, CEO at Zelwin, global marketplace of goods, which allows payments in crypto.
In general, according to experts, until the end of 2020, there is a good likelihood of continued growth in cryptocurrencies and renewal of annual highs. However, one should not expect a new “boom” this year. A truly parabolic market growth is possible only in case of large investments from institutional investors.