Todd Bishop
Bitcoin transactions were priced at $11,460 on the website of China’s largest digital asset trading platform. Judging from the industry’s general forecast, the probability of this rally will continue. There are even predictions that bitcoin prices will reach $20,000 at the end of 2019, which is expected to exceed the highest record set at the end of 2017 of $19,200. The turning point of this turning point is that the industry is concerned with the recent release of Libra’s encrypted digital currency white paper by social media giant Facebook.
Some analysts pointed out that the Libra project initiated by Facebook has made people see the huge potential and value of the blockchain in the field of payment, which is beneficial to Bitcoin to a certain extent.
Bitcoin has continued to decline since 2018, falling below $4,000 in December, a drop of more than 80%. At the beginning of 2019, bitcoin prices also remained sluggish. From January to February 2019, bitcoin prices remained at around $3,500. But with the official launch of Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra on June 18 and the release of a white paper, the market has been excited, and the price of Bitcoin has stabilized above $9,000. And in a short time broke through the million marks.
However, many people are relatively cautious about Bitcoin and believe that the rising trend of bitcoin prices may be difficult to sustain. According to a recent report by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, hedge funds and other fund managers hold a bearish “short” position on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) bitcoin futures market about 14% more than a bullish “long” position. Other large traders are even more pessimistic.
In addition, some blockchain experts believe that Libra’s environmental benefits are much better (more power efficient) than cryptocurrencies (including bitcoin). Its energy needs are comparable to today’s data centers, unlike bitcoin mining, which requires a lot of energy. In other words, the current rising bitcoin is less attractive and lucrative than Facebook’s Libra; its benefit from Libra’s birth will be short-lived, and the market will certainly reap the gains.
