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Believing, Not Seeing: Institutions Still Predict 2021 $100K Bitcoin Price

Even though Bitcoin has struggled to reclaim its recent high of $42,000, projections of BTC reaching $100,000 in 2021 still seem achievable to some.

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This article was originally published by The Coin Telegraph.

Even though Bitcoin has struggled to reclaim its recent high of $42,000, projections of BTC reaching $100,000 still seem achievable to some. Despite Bitcoin price cooling off in recent days, with the premier cryptocurrency currently hovering around the $32,000 mark, it is still showcasing strong technicals as well as a thirty-day price gain of nearly 40%. Not only that, but even since its recent dip — which has seen the digital asset fall from its recently established all-time high of around $42,000 to its present value — the top crypto is still in the green over the last 12 months, exhibiting a value spike of nearly 300%. In this regard, since the fourth quarter of 2019, a number of traditional finance players have been predicting big things for Bitcoin (BTC), especially as governments all over the world continue to print money in the form of “economic stimulus packages,” leading to fears of inflation becoming more prevalent but also of a looming economic disaster that could potentially result in a global recession of unprecedented proportions. For example, during the second quarter of 2020, the economy of the United States plunged at an unprecedented rate, with the global powerhouse’s gross domestic product, which outlines a nation’s total output of goods and services, falling by 31.4%. In the wake of such developments — including an alarming rate of money being printed by central banks globally — many investment houses and banking institutions are now beginning to see a future for Bitcoin, especially as a hedge against monetary inflation, despite its current volatility levels.

Many institutions see BTC at $100,000-plus

Earlier this year, American megabank JPMorgan Chase’s strategy team, led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, claimed that a theoretical target of $146,000-plus could be sustainable for BTC by the end of 2021, pushing the narrative that the digital currency seems to be a prime candidate for replacing gold as a long-term store-of-value, especially for a budding base of younger, more tech-savvy investors. In a similar vein, new data released by Pantera Capital, an investment firm and hedge fund, reiterates JPMorgan’s sentiments surrounding BTC, suggesting that its price action is closely following the Stock-to-Flow model, thus reaffirming its faith in the digital asset hitting the $115,000 mark by Aug. 1.
Bitcoin’s value ascent in relation to the S2F model. Source: Pantera Capital
The S2F model that was developed by PlanB looks at BTC halving events that take place roughly every four years and how they play a direct role in spurring the currency’s value roughly six months after each cycle. In this regard, one can see that following each of the previous three halvings, Bitcoin has shown remarkable growth. For example, after the May 2020 halving, the price of 1 BTC rested at $8,000, only to shoot past the $15,000 threshold after exactly six months. Raiffeisen Bank too employed the S2F model in a recent report to ascertain where Bitcoin might be headed in the near future. According to the company’s research team, price targets beyond the $100,000 mark or even $1 million may be possible to achieve. “The fact is, now that the value has more than tripled in 2020 and momentum remains strong, future further gains should not surprise us,” the study reads. Other prominent players from the realm of traditional finance who have projected big things for BTC in the short term include individuals such as Andy Yee, public policy director for Greater China at cross-border payments provider Visa, who believes that this rally is different from the one in 2017, as it marks a shift from high-speculative, nonfunctioning tokens toward Bitcoin and Ether (ETH). Similarly, Thomas Fitzpatrick, global head of U.S.-based financial giant Citibank’s CitiFX Technicals market insight product, allegedly wrote in a private report — which was leaked online — that by December, Bitcoin has the potential to scale up to a price of around $318,000.

Fanciful projections or imminent reality?

Even though the S2F model was at first one of the few technical indicators signaling Bitcoin’s astronomical rise, it now seems that an increasing number of experts and analysts are beginning to see the technological and monetary proposition being put forth by BTC and other cryptocurrencies. Sam Tabar, co-founder of Fluidity — the company behind the AirSwap trading platform — and former head of capital strategy for Merrill Lynch told Cointelegraph that everyone needs to remember that the optimism surrounding BTC at this point is not just fluff, as speculation is now backed by real substance, adding:
“Bitcoin is not ruled by any one person or government. Instead, it is ruled by the simple laws of supply and demand. [...] In essence, Bitcoin is two sides of the same coin: On the one side is a global currency, and then the other side is digital gold.”
As a proxy for a global currency, the friction of buying crypto has been significantly reduced, as it’s easier than ever before to acquire Bitcoin. Similarly, as a proxy for gold, Tabar opined that Bitcoin is being used as a hedge against the U.S. dollar, especially as the newly elected President Joe Biden looks to spur U.S. dollar spending in order to prop up the economy against the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns. Providing a more technical breakdown as to why institutions are betting big on Bitcoin, J. P. Thieriot, CEO of asset trading platform Uphold, told Cointelegraph that unlike traditional dollar debasement havens like gold and other commodities, Bitcoin has zero elasticity on the supply side. He highlighted that if/when the price of gold reaches $3,000, marginal gold mines will once again fire up, with the same dynamic being applicable with oil and every other non-math-based unit of account. Thieriot believes that “The unique lack of supply-side elasticity means that, price-wise, BTC will respond more precipitously than things like gold, to the exact same drivers.” He further added:
“BTC is in the early stages of its rollout. As it metamorphosizes from fringe curiosity to portfolio must-have, it’s pretty logical to assume that inflows will grow. If I were a bookie, I’d say the over/under for Dec 31, 2021 midnight... is $85,000.”
Lastly, the ever-increasing institutional demand seems to be changing the digital-asset market, which in turn is driving many banks to make seemingly outlandish price projections in relation to BTC. For instance, more funds are now looking to enter the crypto game, and recently, American firm Osprey Funds announced that it will be launching its over-the-counter crypto solution, Osprey Bitcoin Trust, which will likely rival Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.

Investor sentiment surrounding BTC is high

When looking at the market sentiment surrounding Bitcoin, the digital currency is increasingly showing correlations with the core functions traditionally afforded by traditional fiat currencies for their users — that is, it has become a unit of account, a standard of deferred payments and, lastly, a tangible long-term store of value. Also, over the course of 2020, an increasing number of e-commerce platforms added support for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a method of transaction to pay for goods and services. PayPal, for example — a company that boasts a 28-million-strong merchant base — now allows users to buy, sell and store cryptocurrencies via its platform. On the subject, Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer of crypto exchange Bitfinex, told Cointelegraph that consumer sentiment around Bitcoin is overwhelmingly bullish right now and that people who are celebrating the rise of various altcoins and other off-chain solutions owe their success to the flagship crypto, adding:
“The king of crypto is the base layer for an emerging alternative financial system. Bitcoin is providing a solid foundation for a staggering array of projects, some of which will fundamentally change the nature of money by the end of the decade.”
Thieriot believes that the sentiment driving BTC is a result of previously unseen levels of currency debasement generated by the monetary response to COVID-19. Beyond retail speculation, he believes corporations are looking to hedge their fiat exposure, evidently seeing some relative advantages of Bitcoin over traditional havens like gold and subsequently jumping in. “The early jumpers have been handsomely rewarded, and so the trend is likely to continue,” he added. Lastly, Tabar highlighted that one of the more recent signs of growing consumer sentiment and institutional acceptance regarding BTC has come in the form of recent filings made by BlackRock, an American multinational investment management corporation with $8.7 trillion in assets under management as of the end of 2020. A quick look at the filings showcases a strong use of crypto-oriented language alluding to the company’s funds potentially engaging in “futures contracts based on Bitcoin.”

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The next pandemic? It’s already here for Earth’s wildlife

Bird flu is decimating species already threatened by climate change and habitat loss.

I am a conservation biologist who studies emerging infectious diseases. When people ask me what I think the next pandemic will be I often say that we are in the midst of one – it’s just afflicting a great many species more than ours.

I am referring to the highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza H5N1 (HPAI H5N1), otherwise known as bird flu, which has killed millions of birds and unknown numbers of mammals, particularly during the past three years.

This is the strain that emerged in domestic geese in China in 1997 and quickly jumped to humans in south-east Asia with a mortality rate of around 40-50%. My research group encountered the virus when it killed a mammal, an endangered Owston’s palm civet, in a captive breeding programme in Cuc Phuong National Park Vietnam in 2005.

How these animals caught bird flu was never confirmed. Their diet is mainly earthworms, so they had not been infected by eating diseased poultry like many captive tigers in the region.

This discovery prompted us to collate all confirmed reports of fatal infection with bird flu to assess just how broad a threat to wildlife this virus might pose.

This is how a newly discovered virus in Chinese poultry came to threaten so much of the world’s biodiversity.

H5N1 originated on a Chinese poultry farm in 1997. ChameleonsEye/Shutterstock

The first signs

Until December 2005, most confirmed infections had been found in a few zoos and rescue centres in Thailand and Cambodia. Our analysis in 2006 showed that nearly half (48%) of all the different groups of birds (known to taxonomists as “orders”) contained a species in which a fatal infection of bird flu had been reported. These 13 orders comprised 84% of all bird species.

We reasoned 20 years ago that the strains of H5N1 circulating were probably highly pathogenic to all bird orders. We also showed that the list of confirmed infected species included those that were globally threatened and that important habitats, such as Vietnam’s Mekong delta, lay close to reported poultry outbreaks.

Mammals known to be susceptible to bird flu during the early 2000s included primates, rodents, pigs and rabbits. Large carnivores such as Bengal tigers and clouded leopards were reported to have been killed, as well as domestic cats.

Our 2006 paper showed the ease with which this virus crossed species barriers and suggested it might one day produce a pandemic-scale threat to global biodiversity.

Unfortunately, our warnings were correct.

A roving sickness

Two decades on, bird flu is killing species from the high Arctic to mainland Antarctica.

In the past couple of years, bird flu has spread rapidly across Europe and infiltrated North and South America, killing millions of poultry and a variety of bird and mammal species. A recent paper found that 26 countries have reported at least 48 mammal species that have died from the virus since 2020, when the latest increase in reported infections started.

Not even the ocean is safe. Since 2020, 13 species of aquatic mammal have succumbed, including American sea lions, porpoises and dolphins, often dying in their thousands in South America. A wide range of scavenging and predatory mammals that live on land are now also confirmed to be susceptible, including mountain lions, lynx, brown, black and polar bears.

The UK alone has lost over 75% of its great skuas and seen a 25% decline in northern gannets. Recent declines in sandwich terns (35%) and common terns (42%) were also largely driven by the virus.

Scientists haven’t managed to completely sequence the virus in all affected species. Research and continuous surveillance could tell us how adaptable it ultimately becomes, and whether it can jump to even more species. We know it can already infect humans – one or more genetic mutations may make it more infectious.

At the crossroads

Between January 1 2003 and December 21 2023, 882 cases of human infection with the H5N1 virus were reported from 23 countries, of which 461 (52%) were fatal.

Of these fatal cases, more than half were in Vietnam, China, Cambodia and Laos. Poultry-to-human infections were first recorded in Cambodia in December 2003. Intermittent cases were reported until 2014, followed by a gap until 2023, yielding 41 deaths from 64 cases. The subtype of H5N1 virus responsible has been detected in poultry in Cambodia since 2014. In the early 2000s, the H5N1 virus circulating had a high human mortality rate, so it is worrying that we are now starting to see people dying after contact with poultry again.

It’s not just H5 subtypes of bird flu that concern humans. The H10N1 virus was originally isolated from wild birds in South Korea, but has also been reported in samples from China and Mongolia.

Recent research found that these particular virus subtypes may be able to jump to humans after they were found to be pathogenic in laboratory mice and ferrets. The first person who was confirmed to be infected with H10N5 died in China on January 27 2024, but this patient was also suffering from seasonal flu (H3N2). They had been exposed to live poultry which also tested positive for H10N5.

Species already threatened with extinction are among those which have died due to bird flu in the past three years. The first deaths from the virus in mainland Antarctica have just been confirmed in skuas, highlighting a looming threat to penguin colonies whose eggs and chicks skuas prey on. Humboldt penguins have already been killed by the virus in Chile.

A colony of king penguins.
Remote penguin colonies are already threatened by climate change. AndreAnita/Shutterstock

How can we stem this tsunami of H5N1 and other avian influenzas? Completely overhaul poultry production on a global scale. Make farms self-sufficient in rearing eggs and chicks instead of exporting them internationally. The trend towards megafarms containing over a million birds must be stopped in its tracks.

To prevent the worst outcomes for this virus, we must revisit its primary source: the incubator of intensive poultry farms.

Diana Bell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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This is the biggest money mistake you’re making during travel

A retail expert talks of some common money mistakes travelers make on their trips.

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Travel is expensive. Despite the explosion of travel demand in the two years since the world opened up from the pandemic, survey after survey shows that financial reasons are the biggest factor keeping some from taking their desired trips.

Airfare, accommodation as well as food and entertainment during the trip have all outpaced inflation over the last four years.

Related: This is why we're still spending an insane amount of money on travel

But while there are multiple tricks and “travel hacks” for finding cheaper plane tickets and accommodation, the biggest financial mistake that leads to blown travel budgets is much smaller and more insidious.

A traveler watches a plane takeoff at an airport gate.

Jeshoots on Unsplash

This is what you should (and shouldn’t) spend your money on while abroad

“When it comes to traveling, it's hard to resist buying items so you can have a piece of that memory at home,” Kristen Gall, a retail expert who heads the financial planning section at points-back platform Rakuten, told Travel + Leisure in an interview. “However, it's important to remember that you don't need every souvenir that catches your eye.”

More Travel:

According to Gall, souvenirs not only have a tendency to add up in price but also weight which can in turn require one to pay for extra weight or even another suitcase at the airport — over the last two months, airlines like Delta  (DAL) , American Airlines  (AAL)  and JetBlue Airways  (JBLU)  have all followed each other in increasing baggage prices to in some cases as much as $60 for a first bag and $100 for a second one.

While such extras may not seem like a lot compared to the thousands one might have spent on the hotel and ticket, they all have what is sometimes known as a “coffee” or “takeout effect” in which small expenses can lead one to overspend by a large amount.

‘Save up for one special thing rather than a bunch of trinkets…’

“When traveling abroad, I recommend only purchasing items that you can't get back at home, or that are small enough to not impact your luggage weight,” Gall said. “If you’re set on bringing home a souvenir, save up for one special thing, rather than wasting your money on a bunch of trinkets you may not think twice about once you return home.”

Along with the immediate costs, there is also the risk of purchasing things that go to waste when returning home from an international vacation. Alcohol is subject to airlines’ liquid rules while certain types of foods, particularly meat and other animal products, can be confiscated by customs. 

While one incident of losing an expensive bottle of liquor or cheese brought back from a country like France will often make travelers forever careful, those who travel internationally less frequently will often be unaware of specific rules and be forced to part with something they spent money on at the airport.

“It's important to keep in mind that you're going to have to travel back with everything you purchased,” Gall continued. “[…] Be careful when buying food or wine, as it may not make it through customs. Foods like chocolate are typically fine, but items like meat and produce are likely prohibited to come back into the country.

Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024

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As the pandemic turns four, here’s what we need to do for a healthier future

On the fourth anniversary of the pandemic, a public health researcher offers four principles for a healthier future.

John Gomez/Shutterstock

Anniversaries are usually festive occasions, marked by celebration and joy. But there’ll be no popping of corks for this one.

March 11 2024 marks four years since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

Although no longer officially a public health emergency of international concern, the pandemic is still with us, and the virus is still causing serious harm.

Here are three priorities – three Cs – for a healthier future.

Clear guidance

Over the past four years, one of the biggest challenges people faced when trying to follow COVID rules was understanding them.

From a behavioural science perspective, one of the major themes of the last four years has been whether guidance was clear enough or whether people were receiving too many different and confusing messages – something colleagues and I called “alert fatigue”.

With colleagues, I conducted an evidence review of communication during COVID and found that the lack of clarity, as well as a lack of trust in those setting rules, were key barriers to adherence to measures like social distancing.

In future, whether it’s another COVID wave, or another virus or public health emergency, clear communication by trustworthy messengers is going to be key.

Combat complacency

As Maria van Kerkove, COVID technical lead for WHO, puts it there is no acceptable level of death from COVID. COVID complacency is setting in as we have moved out of the emergency phase of the pandemic. But is still much work to be done.

First, we still need to understand this virus better. Four years is not a long time to understand the longer-term effects of COVID. For example, evidence on how the virus affects the brain and cognitive functioning is in its infancy.

The extent, severity and possible treatment of long COVID is another priority that must not be forgotten – not least because it is still causing a lot of long-term sickness and absence.

Culture change

During the pandemic’s first few years, there was a question over how many of our new habits, from elbow bumping (remember that?) to remote working, were here to stay.

Turns out old habits die hard – and in most cases that’s not a bad thing – after all handshaking and hugging can be good for our health.

But there is some pandemic behaviour we could have kept, under certain conditions. I’m pretty sure most people don’t wear masks when they have respiratory symptoms, even though some health authorities, such as the NHS, recommend it.

Masks could still be thought of like umbrellas: we keep one handy for when we need it, for example, when visiting vulnerable people, especially during times when there’s a spike in COVID.

If masks hadn’t been so politicised as a symbol of conformity and oppression so early in the pandemic, then we might arguably have seen people in more countries adopting the behaviour in parts of east Asia, where people continue to wear masks or face coverings when they are sick to avoid spreading it to others.

Although the pandemic led to the growth of remote or hybrid working, presenteeism – going to work when sick – is still a major issue.

Encouraging parents to send children to school when they are unwell is unlikely to help public health, or attendance for that matter. For instance, although one child might recover quickly from a given virus, other children who might catch it from them might be ill for days.

Similarly, a culture of presenteeism that pressures workers to come in when ill is likely to backfire later on, helping infectious disease spread in workplaces.

At the most fundamental level, we need to do more to create a culture of equality. Some groups, especially the most economically deprived, fared much worse than others during the pandemic. Health inequalities have widened as a result. With ongoing pandemic impacts, for example, long COVID rates, also disproportionately affecting those from disadvantaged groups, health inequalities are likely to persist without significant action to address them.

Vaccine inequity is still a problem globally. At a national level, in some wealthier countries like the UK, those from more deprived backgrounds are going to be less able to afford private vaccines.

We may be out of the emergency phase of COVID, but the pandemic is not yet over. As we reflect on the past four years, working to provide clearer public health communication, avoiding COVID complacency and reducing health inequalities are all things that can help prepare for any future waves or, indeed, pandemics.

Simon Nicholas Williams has received funding from Senedd Cymru, Public Health Wales and the Wales Covid Evidence Centre for research on COVID-19, and has consulted for the World Health Organization. However, this article reflects the views of the author only, in his academic capacity at Swansea University, and no funding or organizational bodies were involved in the writing or content of this article.

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