There was a time when Bitcoin’s price topping $100,000 seemed far fetched, a prediction that smacked of hope rather than plausibility.
Not anymore.
With Bitcoin posting yet another all-time high on Wednesday of $93,477, that lofty six-digit goal is within reach. Maybe even by the end of this week. Or the end of the day.
Cue maximum FOMO.
“Moments like these spark waves of emotion,” said Matt Hougan, the chief investment officer of Bitwise, a crypto asset management firm, in a note to clients on Tuesday.
“Those who owned Bitcoin prior to the November election are jubilant, and rightly so. But many of those who didn’t feel as though they’ve missed the boat.”
$500,000?
Hougan hastened to add that it’s still very early in the Bitcoin bull cycle. In his view, the conditions are in place to multiply Bitcoin’s price five times.
In other words, $500,000 is the new $100,000.
Meanwhile, crypto investors have plenty to chew over since Donald Trump won a second term as president on November 5 and is now poised to deliver on his promise of making the US a “Bitcoin superpower.”
Bitcoin has soared more than 107% this year, according to CoinGecko data. And the crypto market’s total value has jumped a whopping 84%, to $3.2 trillion, another all-time high.
Yet decentralised finance appears to be lagging behind.
DeFi lagging
Ethereum’s price is up 26% in the last seven days and surpassed $3,300. And it’s up 41% for the year. But Ether has yet to top its all-time high of $4,878 in 2021 and is being eclipsed yet again by Bitcoin.
Moreover, the market value of the top 100 DeFi coins actually slipped 3.5% on Wednesday even as memecoins surged more than 15%, to $126 billion, according to CoinGecko.
And DOGE, the memecoin pegged to Elon Musk’s appointment as Trump’s government efficiency czar, soared 88% in the last 24 hours and sports a value of $427 million.
Investors are revelling in what analyst James Cheek called the Euphoria Zone.
Unlike the last crypto bull run in 2020 and 2021, this time retail and institutional investors alike have an easy way to access the market — Bitcoin (and Ether) exchange traded funds issued by BlackRock and other asset management stalwarts.
With both Wall Street and the White House embracing Bitcoin and its ilk, the euphoria may last for quite some time.
Edward Robinson is the story editor for DL News. Contact the author at ed@dlnews.com.
