The question arises: what is the reason for such a dazzling surge? And above all: how far can Bitcoin go?
A GOOD REFUGE IN THE AGE OF THE PANDEMIC CRISIS
Let's start with the reasons that are driving the rise of the cryptocurrency queen. If you look at the correlation with events, one would think that the decisive push came in conjunction with the operation that at the beginning of November led the US Department of Justice to seize about 1 billion dollars in cryptocurrency from an account connected to Silk Road. , perhaps the most famous of the darkweb submerged markets , closed in 2014. An important fact but which alone is not enough to explain an increase of over 200 percentage points.
The truth, explains Dion Rabouin from the pages of Axios , is that the big names in finance, such as JPMorgan, Guggenheim, FundStrat, Paul Tudor Jones and the insurance giant MassMutual , have bet hundreds of millions of dollars on the upward trajectory of Bitcoin, considered as one of the few beneficiaries of the pandemic crisis.
"In terms of investments, alternative currencies such as Bitcoin and gold are the main beneficiaries of the pandemic in relative terms", reads a report by JPMorgan. On which Douglas Borthwick , Chief Marketing Officer at the crypotrading platform INX points out: "Governments are broke , they cannot tax but must print money. This places the burden on central banks to stimulate their respective economies, which historically does decrease the value of national currencies (the so-called fiat currencies) " .
In short, not being parameterized on other currencies but with respect to the finite supply of minted coins, Bitcoin is considered a way to bet on the currency crisis, explains Borthwick, "a sort of screen against inflation" . Or, to put it another way, a less risky investment than it once was given the billions of cash injected by the Fed and other major central banks.
INVESTMENTS OF LARGE (AND NON-PAYMENT) COMPANIES
Some very important companies in the payments sector such as Square and PayPal have also thought of giving further impetus to the phenomenon , which, in recent months, have announced the integration of cryptocurrencies in their digital wallets; Visa itself - which in these days has seen itself overtaken in terms of capitalization by the most famous of virtual currencies - has started a collaboration with a startup (BlockFi) to bring to the market a credit card capable of rewarding users with a cashback of 1.5% of purchases in Bitcoin.
And then there's MicroStrategy's maxi-investment . The software house, known worldwide for its business intelligence solutions, bought more than 70,000 Bitcoins this year to protect its reserves against US dollar inflation. At the current listing, they make over $ 2 billion in deposits , a figure that places the American company in the top 10 of the largest individual Bitcoin holders.
TOWARDS 50 THOUSAND DOLLARS (AND MORE THAN)?
With these premises it is understandable why there are those who think that the 30 thousand dollars are only an intermediate step in an escalation that aims at even higher quotas. According to Antoni Trenchev, managing partner and co-founder of Nexo, one of the most prominent platforms in the world of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin could reach $ 50,000 already by the first half of 2021 .
Even more optimistic are the forecasts of Scott Minerd , chief investment officer of Guggenheim Investments, who in an interview with Bloomberg last December 16 stated that Bitcoins could reach $ 400,000 per unit.
Of course there is no lack of rumors that go in the opposite direction. Like those of those who bubble the rise in Bitcoin in the last two months as yet another case of rampant speculation destined to end in tears . Confidence on the part of institutional investors does not mean that there cannot be a change of course - read sale - and therefore substantial volatility , the most skeptical experts warn. The allocation rates of the crypto-investments adopted by these companies would demonstrate this: about 1% or less of the assets under management.
On balance, in short, the big names in finance would be ready to absorb the blow of a possible collapse without major losses. But can the same be said for small investors too?
