On This Day Last Year, BTC Was Selling for $5,236

On January 3rd, 2009, the unknown Satoshi Nakamoto mined Bitcoin’s genesis block. We saw the first major price increase in 2010 when the value of a single BTC rose from $0.0008 to $0.08. Another notable rise took place in 2011, when Bitcoin jumped from $1 in April to a whopping $32 in June, a gain of 3200% in just 3 months. None of it rivals what we’ve seen in the last year, however. 

In 2020, Bitcoin burst into a price action never before seen. On March 18, 2020, Bitcoin was trading at $5,236. Now, just one year later, Bitcoin is currently selling for more than $58,000— an incredible 1,015% increase.

Bitcoin’s Incredible Price Gain Throughout 2020

The history of Bitcoin has been riddled with volatility. In late 2017, some exchanges had the price of the pioneer cryptocurrency at almost $20,000. By December 31, 2018, Bitcoin fell to a ridiculous price of $3,866. 

In March 2020, when the world began to shut down with the announcement of deaths attributed to Covid-19, Bitcoin was around the corner watching. As the virus continued to spread, the stock market was crushed, and businesses closed down. These events—largely spurred by stimulus packages where the Federal Reserve printed money out of thin air—made investors apprehensive of the future of their investments.

The abrupt stop of business, schools, jobs, and livelihood put a lot of people at unease. Investors, both retail and institutional, began to look for something that was outside of the reach of the virus, the stock market, inflation, and the government. For some, the answer eventually came: Bitcoin. 

The king digital asset saw a gradual surge in adoption. Many investment firms began to buy the BTC. MicroStrategy opened the floor with a purchase of 38,250 Bitcoin with $425 million in cash from the business intelligence firm’s balance sheet. Then the Guggenheim fund filed an amendment to the SEC to allow for the ability to invest $500 million in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. Further, Stone Ridge Asset Management invested $115 million in BTC. 

When the price began an uptrend, traditional asset managers began to adjust their outlook toward the digital asset. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon who had once called Bitcoin a “fraud,” quickly embraced the underlying technology and ushered in JPM Coin. By March 10, 2021, JP Morgan filed with the SEC its intention to create a new investment product that is essentially a weighted basket of companies with cryptocurrency exposure.

Political tensions also boosted the asset’s adoption. As protests against police brutality swept across Nigeria in October 2020, Nigerians turned to Bitcoin to collect donations for the logistics for the protests. Quartz Africa noted that as of October 22 when the collection of donations stopped, 40% of the $387,000 raised was from Bitcoin donation. After the protests, Nigerians became interested in Bitcoin, with the country eventually becoming the second largest in the world in terms of Bitcoin trading by market volume.

As adoption grew, Bitcoin’s market price witnessed a massive boost. In November, BTC’s price had more than quadrupled when compared to the previous 8 months. As 2020 came to a close, Bitcoin already showed incredible returns, exchanging at almost $30,000. It ended the year with a market cap larger than $500 billion.

Bitcoin Continued Adoption Caused More Price Gain 

In February of 2021, Bitcoin went on to cross the noteworthy threshold of a $1 trillion market cap. At the time, all cryptocurrencies had a combined market capitalization of $1.7 trillion. 

However, institutional investors showed no signs of slowing down. Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. This move came two weeks after the automaker’s CEO, Elon Musk, added the hashtag #bitcoin to his Twitter bio. A move that helped to push the price of Bitcoin as much as 20% to $38,566. MicroStrategy has continued to purchase additional BTC as well, with total holdings currently believed to be 91,326 bitcoins. The firm’s bitcoin holdings were worth roughly $5.26 billion, as of mid-March.

Fintech companies and banks are also in on the action. Payment giants PayPal and Square’s Cash App have allowed their users to buy and sell the digital asset. Big firms on Wall Street like Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, BlackRock have been prominent new adopters. Mastercard, Visa, and BNY Mellon have also announced that they will allow Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on their platforms. With these new adopters, the price of the coin has witnessed favorable growth.

This past weekend, Bitcoin reached a new all-time high of $62,000. What was joyful news was short-lived. The benchmark cryptocurrency has been correcting after bulls failed to gain a foothold on the market. From March 15 to 16, the market cap lost about $2.24 billion. While many believe the current fall was caused by whale clusters, analysts see Bitcoin continuing to rise.

Where Does Bitcoin Go From  Here?

Analyst and Bitcoin evangelist, Max Keiser, has insisted that the price of Bitcoin will surge to the $220,000 mark within this year. Keiser said on Twitter that if the dollar loses value, Bitcoin will gain. 

In addition, Stock-to-Flow (S2F) price models, which put the year-end target at $100,000, have been corroborated by Bitcoin trader Rekt Capital who noted that the S2F model is on its way to its next target. Several macro factors are also lining up for Bitcoin to reach $100,000 by year’s end.

As Bitcoin trades at $55,428, there’s still a lot to look forward to. Where will Bitcoin go from here? No one actually knows, of course. Some see a significant drop in value in the near future, while others are longing to infinity.

What we can all agree on, is the incredible progress Bitcoin has made in the last year. Who would’ve thought, just one year ago when BTC was trading at just above $5k, that it would rise to $58k in 365 days? Not many people.

So there’s just one question left: Where will Bitcoin be one year from today?

Contributed by The Tokenist.