The market was shaken today by reports of a raid on the headquarters of Upbit, Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. These reports came just a day after more than 8200 BTC were moved from the Mt. Gox cold wallets. All in all, not a good week for the crypto markets so far, with Bitcoin currently trading around $8600, down $780 from around $9380 yesterday.
However, with the influx of institutional business, and money, into the crypto space, many veteran crypto experts don’t appear to be shaken by this recent news. We reached out for their take on the Bitcoin and Ethereum markets. We asked where they see the BTC and ETH prices at the end of July, this year.
Eric Kovalak, Hedge Fund CEO and Managing Partner with Vellum Capital, had the following to say:
“We follow the balance of trends between crypto speculators and a long-term buy and holders. The first three months of the year brought a lot of nervousness to new traders and the younger traders which make up a large part of the crypto market. We feel investors who are holding no matter what will likely be rewarded the longer they are in the market.”
Kovalak continued, and drew attention to the recent volatility:
“The last quarter has made people take a pause a question if the end game for crypto has changed. We’re happy to see prices move with a lot of volatility as this represent a market building a strong base and well tested public consensus. As conservative investors, our fund continues to believe in the investment prospects of this new digital asset class.”
Kovalak’s prediction for the Bitcoin price was as follows:
“Digital assets are a fairly young asset class and so it’s difficult to predict if there is a specific seasonality to summer markets. We do feel that recent price movement has been effective at testing lows and building a base for higher prices. A Bitcoin price above 12,500 by end of July would be completely reasonable.”
“We feel that midsummer crypto markets will continue to capture public interest and that buyers will come to the market more quickly with each successive round of buying. Now that we’ve seen over $19,000 for Bitcoin, it would not take any new substantial developments in the market for Bitcoin to reach in the teens by Summer. We expect to see Bitcoin over $10,000 by the end of July and potentially much higher“
Crystal Stranger, co-founder of PeaCounts, an accounting software using AI and blockchain, has high hopes for both cryptocurrencies this summer:
“Both Bitcoin and Ethereum will be in for big gains this summer. Especially Ethereum with the ICO boom– this will only push the price up as the utility of ETH gains momentum. And the ICO and Bitcoin references on Silicon Valley this season will probably help as well.”
Michael Dupree, founder, and CEO of EasyBit predicts a sustained bull market thanks to innovation in Asia:
“I think we will remain in a bull market due to all the noise about EOS and huge Korean trading volumes as of late. There is a lot of cryptocurrency innovation right now in Asia – particularly Korea.”
Kevin Barnes, CEO of Blocksafe Alliance sees Bitcoin moving towards $30k this summer:
“I think BTC is moving towards $30k as new money comes from future government and commercial issued tokens. Crypto has it up and downs, but when you compare bitcoin to a year ago, it is much higher in value now because of the growing awareness and attraction of a newfound stored value.”
Leah Callon-Butler, Co-Founder and Chief Impact Officer of intimate.io gives a more balanced insight, but remains long-term bullish:
“Nobody knows where crypto prices are going short term, but we are definitely bullish on their future potential. The industry is focused on developing and advancing great blockchain tech, which is ultimately the most interesting, sustainable and world-changing piece in this conversation – beyond the price hype.”
Every response we received was optimistic in nature, which we might have expected, considering each of the replies came from someone who works in the cryptocurrency sector. But either way, it’s a breath of fresh air after the onslaught of negativity from business moguls such as Warren Buffet and Bill Gates.
