Bitcoin Price to Reach $5,000 This Year, Predicts Gatecoin CEO

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Gatecoin, a Hong Kong based cryptocurrency exchange, expects bitcoin’s price to reach $5,000 by the end of the year, according to Bloomberg. The price prediction was headlined on “Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia,” which featured an interview with Aurelien Menant, Gatecoin’s CEO and founder, about the causes of bitcoin’s recent price surge and his expectations for continued growth. He said the markets are driving increasing interest in bitcoin.

“Another factor that is very important is the arrival of more and more institutional investors in bitcoin,” Menant said. “Historically we used to have a few hatch funds trading bitcoin in Europe and the U.S. Now we have around 60 or 70 of them that are starting to trade bitcoin.”

Some funds are now dedicated to digital currencies. “So this is definitely driving a surge in the price,” he said.

China Will Increase Regulations

Asked if he expects more regulation from China, Menant answered in the affirmative. “China is catching up with other countries like Japan or the U.S. that have already regulated bitcoin,” he said. Given that bitcoin’s market capitalization has reached $70 billion, “Obviously you need to have some rules in place to prevent money laundering, so to me it’s natural and rather a good thing that the governments and central banks are starting to regulate bitcoin.”

Asked if the popularity of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is driven by the perception that they are safe havens, he said bitcoin is not dependent on traditional markets, central banks and other currencies.

“Another property of bitcoin is to make it impossible – I mean you own your own bitcoin so nobody can seize them, and in that regard when people are less and less trusting of government, the central bank or regular markets, bitcoin is even more efficient asset than gold,” he said.

Also read: Bitcoin price to reach $6,000 in 2018, predicts Wall Street strategist

Bullish Price Predictions Continue

While the bitcoin price pulled back from its all-time high this weekend, weighed down by a bitcoin cash price surge and disagreements over the SegWit2x scaling proposal, Wall Street strategist Tom Lee wrote a note to clients establishing a mid-2018 bitcoin price target of $6,000. He also forecasts that it could rise as high as $25,000 by 2022.

Lee – who co-founded Fundstrat Global Advisors and is bearish on the outlook for the stock market – believes that the long-term prospects of the bitcoin price remain quite promising.