Ever since QTUM , the native cryptocurrency of the Quantum network, was halved on 1 December the price of the coin itself has more than halved.
Today the price is $5.85 and that is up more than 6% but on halving day it was worth around $15.
Halving is a deflationary process to control how many coins enter the circulating supply through block rewards and so increase demand for the coins.Halvings are now set for every four years and mean the block rewards drop from 1 QTUM to 0.5 QTUM.
QTUM had gained around 5% in November in the run up to the halving and had put on more than 300% since the start of 2021.Although the halving itself had little discernable effect on the coin’s value, it was then caught up in the squall that hit cryptos on 3 December losing a third of its value.Another flash crash hit the sector on 21 December and it fell below $5 for the first time since last July.
It has put on 16% since but is struggling to gain momentum.
What are the prospects of renewed upside?
In this article, we look at the recent developments in the Quantum blockchain and QTUM price predictions from forecasters.
Quantum offers developer rewards as halving approaches
Founded in 2016, with the cryptocurrency launching in 2017, Quantum is an enterprise-focused blockchain running smart contracts on multiple virtual machines.This hybrid blockchain, which combines features of Bitcoin and Ethereum, operates on a decentralised proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithm.
Like many newer blockchains, Quantum is focused on developing decentralised finance (DeFI) applications.Its stated aim is to provide an “alternative EVM-compatible platform for developers who want to deploy their dApps without having to suffer from congestion and astronomical gas fees” – issues which have affected the Ethereum blockchain.
QTUM was designed to be deflationary, like bitcoin, meaning supply reduces over time, while demand increases.Higher block rewards were given early on in the blockchain’s development to attract more stakers, but the reward is reduced to prevent the coin from becoming an inflationary asset with growing supply like traditional fiat currencies.Like bitcoin, QTUM is designed to undergo a halving of the block rewards every four years.
“As part of QTUM’s coin issuance, stakers are rewarded with a subsidy of newly minted QTUM whenever a block is produced, plus gas and fees for transactions in that block.
When QTUM first started, four QTUM per block were given as a reward to stakers.After every 3,942,000 blocks (approximately every four years), the block reward halves and will keep on halving until the block reward per block becomes zero (in the year 2045),” according to the QTUM Halvening website .
On 30 April, the FastLane hard fork, a split in the blockchain, reduced the block time to 32 seconds, from 128 seconds previously, and reduced the block reward to one QTUM.As the blockchain is faster than Bitcoin, the QTUM halving schedule differs from the Bitcoin halvings.
The QTUM blockchain will halve for the first time at block 1,427,004, which is expected to be generated around 1 December, according to the website.At that point, block rewards will be reduced from 1.0 QTUM every 32 seconds to 0.5 QTUM.
This will change the annual inflation rate for the coin to around 0.5%.
The maximum supply of QTUM is capped at 107.8 million coins, which will be reached in December 2045.There are currently 98.98 million coins in circulation, of a total 103.9 million in supply, according to CoinMarketCap.This has given QTUM a market capitalisation of $578m at the time of writing on 26 January, ranking it as the 102nd largest cryptocurrency.
Quantum co-founder Patrick Dai said in August that QTUM will be undergoing changes in the coming months, as “after five years of Qtum white paper released, we are planning a rebranding for Qtum and rebuilding the tech and global consensus.Qtum has some Unique tech stacks and made some great innovations for [the] Bitcoin ecosystem.
In a November’s QTUM news, it rolled out details of the rebranding that month, with plans to expand its marketing in 2022.
Source: QTUM
On 9 November, Dai said that QTUM will support Bitcoin’s Taproot upgrade, the first upgrade on the blockchain in four years, which went live in mid-November.
Taproot aims to increase the efficiency and privacy of transactions and add the potential for developers to run smart contracts on the blockchain.
On 22 November, Dai wrote on twitter: “Qtum is building a Layer2 network too, by this way, we can scale Qtum TPS higher than Visa, it can go up to 10k TPS through different ZK-Rollups.” QTUM is also moving into non-fungible tokens (NFTs), having run a campaign from 6 October to 2 November to test NFT creation on the platform testnet and identify any bugs.
On 20 December QTUM tweeted that it was implementing a system called Janus “which will allow Qtum to sync easily with Ethereum’s ecosystem and empower developers to create multi-chain applications”.It concluded: “The future of the crypto ecosystem lies in establishing proper interoperability”.
The emergence of decentralised applications and NFTs has driven interest in QTUM coin news.The price rallied to a three-year high of $35.38 on 7 May, as the cryptocurrency markets rallied.It dropped back to a low of $4.46 on 22 June, trading no higher than $8 until the market bottomed out at $4.84 on 20 July.
QTUM traded up to $17 on 6 September as the markets rallied over the summer, and then dropped back to $8.56 on 29 September during a late-September selloff.
With cryptocurrency prices trending higher and the QTUM updates approaching, the coin price rallied to $19.15 on 1 November, its highest level since May.However it has since dropped further and is now (26 January) at $5.84.
So, what does the latest QTUM price analysis indicate about the coin’s future? Is there any potential for the price to move back up to the $100 level over the long term?
QTUM price prediction: can the coin rebound to its record high?
Short-term technical analysis on QTUM from CoinCodex had turned bearish, with the coin trading around $5.84 at the time of writing.There were 14 oscillator indicators giving bearish indicators and 18 bullish signals.CoinCodex predicted that the QTUM price could perk up to $6.55 by 31 January.
The QTUM/USD forecast from Wallet Investor was bullish, predicting that the price could rise to $11.82 at the start of 2023 and eventually rise to $37.8 inn five years’ time.
DigitalCoin predicted that the QTUM price could average $8.17 in 2022, increase to $12.95 in 2025 and average $20 in 2028.
PricePrediction estimated that QTUM could average $8.42 in 2022 but move up to an average of $26.6 in 2025 and rise to an average of $181 by 2030.
It’s important to keep in mind that cryptocurrency markets remain extremely volatile, making it difficult to accurately predict what a coin’s price will be in a few hours, and even harder to give long-term estimates.As such, analysts and online forecasting sites can get their predictions wrong.
We recommend that you always do your own research, and consider the latest market trends, news, technical and fundamental analysis, and expert opinion before making any investment decisions.
And never invest more than you can afford to lose.
FAQs
Cryptocurrencies are high-risk investments, particularly the smaller altcoins like QTUM .Its future will depend on the adoption of the Quantum blockchain and cryptocurrency in applications, over the range of other blockchains that are being developed.The future of cryptocurrencies as an asset class remains uncertain, and investors could shift to alternative assets, removing liquidity.
Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile assets, making them riskier than other forms of investment.
Whether QTUM is a suitable investment for you depends on your personal circumstances.You should evaluate the level of risk you are prepared to accept before investing and never invest money that you cannot afford to lose.
At the time of writing, forecasting sites suggested that the QTUM price could remain below $100 in the next few years, with the most bullish forecasts estimating that the price could trade around the $70 level in 2025.In the longer term, PricePrediction projected that QTUM could rise above $100 and reach $500 in 2030.However, it’s important to keep in mind that forecasting sites can and do get their predictions wrong.Always do your own research.
Read more: MaticVerse price prediction: Will it rise again?
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