Some commentators predict that Bitcoin might not be the driver for the next significant price rally in the cryptocurrency market.
Mainstream Financial Collapse and the Rise of Virtual Currencies
After the lofty heights attained at the back end of 2018, the virtual currency market took a massive nosedive in 2018. Coin prices plummeted by an average of 75 percent across the industry. The total market capitalization shrunk from the $800 billion range to the $200 billion range.
However, despite these difficulties, Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock, believes the mass adoption of virtual currencies is firmly on the horizon. According to Byrne, the systemic failures in the legacy financial systems in many countries will push more people to embrace digital currencies.
In a recent interview, Byrne noted:
When people start getting into it is when their own financial systems collapse. Whether bitcoin is the one, whether bitcoin has solved its speed problem, or it’s another cryptocurrency, only time will tell.
Bearish Trend Likely to Continue
Despite the enthusiasm surrounding the prospect of another significant price rally, the expectation is that the current bear market isn’t going away any time soon. The consensus is that the virtual currencies will continue to experience sideways trading barring any profound development in the market.
Recently, Arthur Hayes, the CEO of BitMEX, forecasted that the Bitcoin bear market could persist up until 2020. Some who also predicted new all-time highs for the top-ranked cryptocurrency by the end of 2018 have also retracted those bullish predictions. If the bearish conditions hold, then the prices of cryptocurrencies will continue to be range-bound with no bottom in sight.
Bitcoin Might Not Trigger Cryptocurrency Boom
Much like Byrne, not everyone thinks that Bitcoin will be at the forefront of another price boom in the market. In a recent blog post, Peter Smith, the CEO of Blockchain – arguably the world’s most popular Bitcoin wallet – said that XLM (Stellar) was a virtual currency to watch. According to Smith, the technology behind XLM allows for low-cost transactions even when being used by millions of people at the same time.
For others like Ian McLeod, there will be a flippening which will result in Ethereum being the top virtual currency in the industry. According to McLeod, Ethereum is technologically superior to Bitcoin and will soon gain a significant portion of the entire cryptocurrency market share.
Do you think any other cryptocurrency can upstage Bitcoin as the primary driver for a significant market-wide price increase? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.