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Bitcoin To Suffer More Losses In 2019, No Price Bottom In Sight — Analysts Anna Golubova Monday December 24, 2018 11:57
Kitco News
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( Kitco News ) – After a very painful year that saw prices drop from $17,000 to just below $3,500, bitcoin’s losses are not exhausted yet, according to analysts who see darker days ahead.
This year has shocked many crypto investors after 2017’s fear of missing out (FOMO), which boosted prices all the way to a record high of $19,511 in December 2017, turned against them.
The biggest losses came in January, March, May, August, and November, with prices eventually hitting the lowest annual level of $3,215 per bitcoin, according to Kitco’s aggregated charts.
At the time of writing, bitcoin was barely holding on to the $4,000 level, trading at $4,189.

50, down 69% on the year.
Aside from extreme views by bitcoin bulls and bears, the overall trend is that bitcoin will see more headwinds in 2019.
Bitcoin seems to be stuck in a bear market as cryptos wrap up a very disappointing year, said Kitco’s senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff.

The next level to be breached by bitcoin will be $3,000, Wyckoff noted, adding that it is unclear where the bottom in prices is, which means more losses are likely for bitcoin next year.
“The technical posture for bitcoin-U.S. dollar remains solidly bearish, suggesting more downside price action at least into early 2019. The next downside target for the powerful bitcoin bears is psychological support at $3,000, and below that at $2,500.

There are no early chart clues to suggest bitcoin prices are near a bottom,” he said.
The bottom in prices could be somewhere around $1,500, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mike McGlone.
“There’s little to prevent fading bitcoin prices from reaching the continuous mean of $1,500,” McGlone said on a note to his clients.

“We’re at a classic psychological stage where the market is reversing the 2017 frenzy.”
Lower bitcoin prices could mean lower volatility, added McGlone.

The bitcoin space has already seen lower volatility from August to November after prices fell below $8,000.

“The trend is lower prices, lower volatility, reduced speculation, and the preponderance of stable coins,” he said.
Another bottom for prices could be $1,200 next year, according to U.S. Global Investors CEO Frank Holmes, who cited legalization challenges as the main obstacles holding cryptocurrencies back.
“I would compare the challenge for cryptocurrencies to that of gold. A lot of the price swings have to do with government policies suppressing bitcoin, like gold, as a form of money,” Holmes said.
Drivers and Obstacles
For cryptos to see a more positive environment next year, there will need to be more acceptance in terms of use, Holmes added.

“One of the main obstacles that cryptocurrencies will have to overcome next year continues to be regulation since digital money is still a new concept to many. It will be directly impacted by the coordination with the G20 finance ministers and their plan of action, along with respective central bankers globally,” he said.

Another major obstacle for cryptocurrencies next year is the loss of consumer confidence, Wyckoff pointed out.
“With prices down so much from the early-2018 highs, public confidence in the viability of the cryptos as a long-term asset or store of value is lower than when those currencies were flying high. Keep an eye on news regarding government regulation and/or recognition of the crypto currencies,” he said.
Additional government regulation might even work in favor of bitcoin prices, Wyckoff added, noting that it would suggest governments are coming to terms with cryptocurrency’s credibility and longer-term sustainability.
“Such would then provide more public trust and confidence in the cryptos as a true asset class,” Wyckoff said.
One of the main ongoing problems for bitcoin will continue to be the U.

S. regulators expanding their investigation into cryptocurrencies to see whether last year’s massive bitcoin rally was triggered by market manipulation.
At the center of the investigation is an allegation that traders used tether — another cryptocurrency — to control bitcoin’s price during its unprecedented rally, which saw prices jump from around $5,500 in November of last year to nearly $20,000 a month later.
It is suspected that traders used the crypto exchange Bitfinex to move bitcoin prices illegally, Bloomberg reported citing three unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

On top of that, there’s growing concern around lack of investor protections, said the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the end of November, noting that it makes the approval of a bitcoin exchange-traded fund unlikely.
“What investors expect is that the trading in that commodity that’s underlying the ETF is trading that makes sense, is free from the risk or significant risk of manipulation,” said SEC chairman Jay Clayton. “Those kinds of safeguards don’t exist in many of the markets where digital currencies trade.” The #crypto sector will remain volatile as the marketplace continues to evolve, but #investors need to pay attention to the long-term value of the technology, says @CryptoCompare CEO |