Everybody knows that one day Bitcoin mining will eventually cease, and the last coin will be mined. The date for this is expected to be around the year 2140. So what could an investment of $100 now be worth in 120 years time? Bitcoin to the MoonTo estimate the price of Bitcoin well into the future we need to take a look at growth models for the cryptocurrency. The two most well-known are Parabolic Travs price growth model, and Plan Bs (S2F).Well also have to take into account that if hyperbitcoinization does occur, and Bitcoin becomes global money used by everyone, and no other kind of currency exists at all, there are still limits to Bitcoins price growth.Hal Finney Bitcoin to have a price of 10 million per coin back in 2009. In Finneys estimate he simply took the estimates for world household wealth and divided it by 21 million coins.He arrived at $10 million per coin. revisited the idea, and recalculated with updated numbers and came to a price of $18 million per coin. Bitcoins parabolic growth can only keep rising until there is no more wealth whose value can be converted to Satoshis.Parabolic Super TrendParabolic Travs parabolic super trend model closely correlates with Plan Bs stock to flow model. While many investors discount the idea of parabolic growth, Bitcoin has already grown 2,232,111,011.11% since sold the first Bitcoins for fiat currency in 2009, to its all time high of $20K in 2017.Bitcoin follows an S-curve of technological adoption, because while it is a currency it is also new technology, which is being adopted by new users at S-curve adoption rates.See the similarities in Travs parabolic price model and S-curves of new technology adoption? They are both parabolic. We may see BTC follow the steeper curve exhibited by smart phones and the internet.Bitcoin Stock to Flow Model is how many years it would take to produce the current total supply of an asset. Golds stock to flow is 62. It would take 62 years of mining to produce the current world supply.Plan Bs S2F further supports this parabolic growth with the model he provided to show the impact Bitcoins halvings have on price. Bitcoins S2F is 25, currently but will be halved to an S2F of 50, much closer to gold.On the graph above you can see the parabolic price increase overlaid with the reduction in block rewards every 210,000 blocks (roughly 4 years).Plan Bs model predicts a trillion dollar Bitcoin market cap after the upcoming halving, or a projected price of $55,000 per BTC.Following Plan Bs model, projects the price of BTC in 2025 to be $1,215,730.5 per coin.Finneys Estimate in Light of Parabolic Growth And S2FCredit Suisse estimates global household wealth to be $360 trillion in USD. Dividing this number by 21 million Bitcoin puts us at a price of $17,142,857 per BTC.However, Chainalysis estimates that as much as have been lost, so lets calculate for 17 million BTC. Using Finneys calculation with 17 million BTC instead of 21 puts us at $21,176,470.58.Assuming hyperbitcoinization occurs by 2140, $100 dollars of BTC at todays current price of $8880, would be 0.01126 in Satoshis. These same Satoshis could have a projected value of $238,373.77 by the time the last Bitcoin is mined in 2140.How much do you think 1 BTC will be worth in 2140? Let us know in the comments!The RundownSourceSubscribe to our Newsletter Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.Share on facebookShare on googleShare on twitterShare on linkedinWant to advertise with us?Get in contact with your proposal and we will get back to you right away.Advertise with Bitcoin Brunch contact us 2019 All Rights Reserved

The cryptocurrency market is now worth almost half as much as Apple, the world’s most valuable company, after the price of Bitcoin soared above $US37,000, bringing total market capitalisation to more than $US1 trillion.

Bitcoin, which has risen by nearly 400% in the last 12 months, traded at an all-time high of $US37,823 on the Coinbase platform on Thursday, thanks to an almost unabated push into cryptocurrencies that has brought the value of all coins traded to over $US1 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.com.

This means the entire crypto market is now worth half as much as Apple, the world’s biggest company by market cap, which at the last count, was worth $US2 trillion.

Cryptocurrencies are also worth more than the entire Swiss economy – home to some of the world’s largest financial institutions and biggest gold vaults.

“Bitcoin has continued to rip up trees, metaphorically speaking, rising to a new record of $US37,000,” CMC Markets chief strategist Michael Hewson said in a daily note.

The driving forces behind the rally are a desire among investors to seek an alternative asset that is decentralized and not tied to any central bank, whose actions can debase a traditional currency’s value, as has been the case of the US dollar with the Federal Reserve’s zero-interest rate policy and trillions of dollars in stimulus over the last year.

“With buying interest continuing to drive the market, any sell-offs of set-backs will be seen as another opportunity to enter a market that, at the moment, is pushing relentlessly higher,” DailyFX strategist Nick Cawley said.

“As always with the crypto space, care should be taken, especially with volatility at its current extreme level,” he added.

Read more A crypto CEO breaks down why he would not be surprised to see bitcoin and ethereum rise at least 100% in 2021 — and says the current sell-offs are a ‘very natural and healthy thing’

Greater transparency brought on by regulation and growing market depth have helped cryptocurrencies shed some of their former reputation as an asset class that was rife with speculation, questionable market practices and fraud.

JPMorgan said on Monday Bitcoin could eventually trade as high as $US146,000 if investors adopt it as an alternative safe haven to gold, although it did add that such a rally might not be sustainable.

Read more Fintech startups like Revolut and Luno are seeing a boom in demand from consumers rushing to invest in cryptocurrencies amid major bitcoin interest

Bitcoin is already the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, and the most widely used, with a current value of almost $US700 billion. Next up, is Ethereum, which has gained 800% in value in the last year to a two-year high of $US1,228 on Thursday on the Coinbase platform. Its market cap is around $US138 billion.

Ripple Labs’ XRP has had more mixed fortunes recently. US regulators recently issued a complaint against Ripple on the grounds that sales of its XRP token were not legitimate, as it considered the coin a security and not a cryptocurrency.

Having more than doubled in value in just one week in late November, XRP lost almost half its value a month later. Since the start of the month, the token has since doubled in value again. XRP was last up nearly 30% on the day at around $US0.328 on the Bitstamp exchange.

Smaller tokens, known as alt-coins, have ridden the coattails of Bitcoin and Ethereum’s rally in the last year. Litecoin and Cardano, and so-called stablecoins – those backed by traditional currencies – such as Tether have also seen their worth soar.

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The cryptocurrency market saw a significant sell-off in the last 2 days, resulting in the total cryptocurrency market cap slipping below the $1 trillion milestone. Notably, Bitcoin dropped below $40,000, a price level that was breached for the first time ever just a few days ago on January 8. The world’s largest cryptocurrency has found support at around $35,000, where it is trading at the moment. Bitcoin is down 11% in the last 24 hours.

Most of the coins in the cryptocurrency top 10 displayed a similar performance, and the situation isn’t any better if we take a look at coins with a lower market cap. Only 11 coins in the cryptocurrency top 100 are posting a positive 24-hour change, and 5 of those coins are stablecoins. Meanwhile, 67 coins in the top 100 are down by 10% or more.

While the price drops were quite significant, the sentiment in the cryptocurrency market remains predominantly bullish. Retracements are to be expected in bull markets, and many investors are seeing the sell-off as an opportunity to »buy the dip«. Despite the price drops, Bitcoin and Ethereum are still up 93 and 100 percent, respectively, in the last 30 days.

The cryptocurrency market has been performing very since the second half of 2020, and the rally has largely been explained by the increased presence of institutional investors in the market for Bitcoin. However, retails investors are now also becoming increasingly interested, as evidenced by outages at top cryptocurrency exchanges and spikes in search engine activity for cryptocurrency-related topics.

Google Trends is showing a notable uptick in searches for both the terms »Bitcoin« and »Ethereum«. While »Bitcoin« isn’t being searched quite as frequently as it was in late 2017, the »Ethereum« search term is trending towards its all-time high.

If the sell-off accelerates and we see further price drops, it will be interesting to see whether retail investors are »shaken out« or if the huge demand for crypto still persists.

The privacy coin markets were subdued in the first week of the year after the United States-based Bittrex cryptocurrency exchange announced it would be delisting Monero, Dash and Zcash. While the exchange did not provide an explanation for why it was delisting the three cryptocurrencies, the cryptocurrency community speculated whether Bittrex’s move signaled upcoming negative regulations for privacy coins.

With the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple tanking the value of XRP in December, crypto investors are now keeping a close eye on potentially impactful regulatory developments. With this in mind, wasn’t too surprising to see that cryptocurrency investors played it safe, and many sold off their privacy coin holdings.

In the recent market-wide sell-off however, privacy coins held up much better than the average cryptocurrency. In the last 24 hours, Monero gained 7.4%, while Zcash delivered a highly impressive 26.7% spike. Dash lost 2.4% of its value, taking a much smaller hit than Bitcoin and most other top 100 cryptocurrencies.

The past year have given investors all kinds of emotions. It can definitely be termed a roller coaster journey. Irrespective of which asset class you’ve been invested in, you’ll have seen major volatility. In an epic battle of the asset classes, I thought it interesting to compare a 12-month investment in Bitcoin versus the FTSE 100. When I refer to an investment in Bitcoin, I mean buying into it via a virtual coin or some other investment that tracks the price. For the FTSE 100 stock index, I assume an investment into a tracker fund that mimics the performance of the 100 constituents. Let’s begin. Using April to April timelines, an investment in Bitcoin would have made you just under 30%. This is using a price of $5,198 last April, versus an approximate price of $6,739 now. For a FTSE 100 tracker, your current investment would be down just over 27%. This uses a former price of 7,451 points versus a present price around 5,415 points. For traditional stock investors like myself, this initially leads to some head scratching. Have I been barking up the wrong tree in order to grow my wealth? Solely by looking at those 12-month returns, Bitcoin seems to offer by far the better option. The first thing I always do after looking at the percentage profit/loss from the two different assets is see what different ratios tell me. A really useful statistic I like is the drawdown risk. This measure the difference (in percentage terms) from the highest point to the lowest point over the time period. Needless to say, the higher this number (known as the drawdown) the more risky the asset is. This is because it can be said to have higher volatility.   From high to low, Bitcoin has a drawdown of over 60%. This compares to a FTSE 100 tracker of around 35%. Now we get a clearer picture. While Bitcoin did offer superior returns, it came at almost double the volatility of a stock investment. So knowing the above, what should I do now? In my opinion, the answer stems from which asset offers me the best value currently. Using financial ratios and looking at company balance sheets, various FTSE 100 firms look below fair value. Examples of this include Lloyds Banking Group and J Sainsbury. When I look at Bitcoin, I simply cannot assign a fair value to it. How much is a Bitcoin intrinsically worth? I think many investors would agree that Bitcoin doesn’t trade like a normal asset and often has random moves higher or lower.  Given the volatility and unpredictability of Bitcoin, it could soar 100% in the next year. But by the same token, it could also fall 100%. I much prefer an investment with lower volatility with steadier returns. The FTSE 100 index does just that. In fact – with the slump over the past few months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a future bounce-back could generate higher than average profit from investing now. It’s ugly out there… The threat posed by the coronavirus outbreak has spooked global markets, sending stock prices reeling. And with the Covid-19 virus now beginning to spread beyond of China and Italy, it seems very likely that the bull market we’ve enjoyed over the past decade could finally be coming to an end. Against such a backdrop of market worry, it’s little wonder that many investors are starting to panic. (After all, nobody likes to see the value of their portfolio fall significantly in such a short space of time.) Fortunately, The Motley Fool is here to help, and you don’t have to face this alone… Download a FREE copy of our Bear Market Survival Guide today and discover the five steps you can take right now to try and bolster your portfolio… including how you can even aim to turn today’s market uncertainty to your advantage. Click here to claim your free copy of this Motley Fool report now. Jonathan Smith owns shares in Lloyds Banking Group. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Lloyds Banking Group. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

Retail buying through PayPal is likely helping push bitcoin’s price higher while traders are hoping to get into an ether options market with potential volatility similar to March 2020.

Many funds, including Pantera Capital, are identifying growth in retail demand via PayPal’s brokerage Paxos, which also owns the itBit exchange and provides liquidity. Since PayPal launched cryptocurrency capabilities for its users, itBit’s BTC volume numbers have increased significantly.

The heat is on ether options

Ether derivatives, such as futures and options, are instruments traders are now clamoring for. On Deribit, the top venue for ether options, implied volatility, which is the forecast of an asset’s spot price movement, is 170%, according to data aggregator Genesis Volatility.

It was an odd day for Bitcoin to be breaking more records. On Wednesday, the state of Georgia had turned blue, giving the Democrats majority control in the Senate and paving the way for President Biden to have a free hand in enacting new policies.

A few hours later, as the Senate was about to certify the election results in Washington DC, an angry mob broke in to disrupt proceedings.

Biden is good for Bitcoin

While the scenes of chaos and violence dominated the headlines, the markets had a very different take. US traders, especially those who have benefitted from the boom in tech stocks powered by Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google were hoping that the Republicans held onto the Georgia Senate seats.

Indeed, all of those tech stocks were down yesterday with Apple down by as much as 3%, Facebook 2%, and Amazon 2.5%.

However, over on the Dow and S&P 500 - exchanges that aren’t as tech-centric - the news that Democrats now have a (tiny) majority in the Senate and a slim majority in the House, saw the Dow close at a record high on Wednesday, and the S&P 500 was up 0.6%.

Due to an apparent paperwork mixup, the deadline to submit public comments on a proposed US Treasury rule that would enable some financial surveillance of private cryptocurrency wallets was “quietly extended” until tomorrow, January 7.

Staff members for cryptocurrency advocacy organization Coin Center, digital rights advocacy group Fight for the Future, membership group Blockchain Association, and pro-privacy organization Electronic Frontier Foundation took part in a reddit AMA to discuss their efforts to stop a proposed rule from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the US Treasury Department that counters money laundering and the use of money for illegal purposes.

A 13% rise in the price of ETH over the past 24 hours has propelled Ethereum onto a list of the top 100 traded assets by market cap for the first time, as measured by CompaniesMarketCap.com.

Ethereum marched past 12 other entries on the list today and is currently positioned in the #88 spot, between Bristol-Myers Squibb at #89 and Anheuser-Busch at #87.

Up 62% in 2021 alone, the price of ETH crossed $1,200 today for the first time since Jan. 2018 and appears poised to overtake its all-time high set Jan. 13 of that year. This year’s gains translate into a $53 billion increase in Ethereum’s market cap, enough for it to overtake the market cap of several household conglomerates, including Wells Fargo, AstraZeneca, Philip Morris, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup.

Bitcoin — the only other cryptocurrency on the top 100 list — has also been on a tear through the rankings, surpassing Visa, Berkshire Hathaway, Alibaba and most recently Tencent, to move up to the #10 spot. With an estimated market cap of $12.19 trillion, gold sits atop the list by a margin of $10 trillion; its next closest competitor being Apple, at #2.

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The situation in the cryptocurrency market is currently as exciting as it has ever been. Bitcoin is charting new highs daily, altcoins are also starting to see some notable gains, resulting in massive growth for the entire market.

For the first time ever, the market did something that not a lot of people believed in back a few years ago – it reached a total capitalization of $1 trillion.

It took some time, but the cryptocurrency market capitalization has finally hit the coveted $1 trillion mark. It’s now a member of the four comma club, though we have to see if this will last.

The move is substantial for the industry which grew astronomically in the past years. Compared to the beginning of 2020, the market cap is up a whopping 420%.

Having said this, the bulk of it comes from Bitcoin, which currently accounts for about 67% of the total market. This relative share of the cryptocurrency is also commonly referred to as the Bitcoin dominance index and has fluctuated largely throughout the years.

Second in line is Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency – Ether (ETH).

Over the years, many cryptocurrencies have come and gone from the top 10 but at the time of this writing, a definitive third is the popular stablecoin USDT (Tether). It’s the most commonly used stablecoin as traders use it to hedge their positions and also to denominate their trading portfolio. This is especially true in the derivatives market where high leverage exchanges allow trading against USDT.

Bitcoin is the world’s largest cryptocurrency by means of market cap and the latest increase is largely due to the increase in its price.

The most common comparison for Bitcoin is that with gold. It’s been regarded by gold 2.0 by many and that’s somewhat expected. They share a lot of qualities, the most predominant one being their scarcity. There’s a limited amount of gold on the planet and there will only be 21 million bitcoins in existence.

This is why people refer to gold as a store of value – it doesn’t inflate because we can’t get more of it (unlike fiat currency that’s not backed by gold). The same is true for bitcoins and the narrative that it’s a store of value is growing tremendously, especially in the past year. Riddled by the global pandemic, governments around the world have started printing money to keep their economies afloat – a process that ultimately reduces the value of the existing money in a process known as inflation.

This is where the similarities kind of end, though, and Bitcoin starts to shine. This is perhaps the reason for which massive institutional investors and NASDAQ-listed companies have started to turn to it.

But what is gold’s market cap? Well, according to a BBC article from 2020, there are around 190,000 tonnes of gold already mined in total. There’s no exact estimate of how much left there is and it’s a moving target, but some predictions put it around 20% higher than this number. It’s also worth noting that this is gold that’s economically viable to be mined. New technology might make it so that other reserves that are currently not worth mining, to be worth it.

At the current prices per ounce, this puts the total market cap at around $13.5 trillion or roughly around 1,460% larger than that of BTC. In other words – there’s plenty of room to grow!

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Those with a keen interest in bitcoin are accustomed to dealing with large numbers. A fixed monetary supply of 21 million, 18.5 million of which has already been generated; 100 million satoshis per coin; a market cap of over $600 billion driven by a 9,000,000% rise in value in the 2010s.

On and on it goes, an endless series of figures forming digital rain like the iconic scene in The Matrix. While bitcoin is about much more than numbers – namely privacy, liberty, and fairness – the world’s favorite cryptocurrency is destined to forever be synonymous with integers.

The question on everyone’s lips, however, is concerned with just one of these numbers: how valuable bitcoin can become. A new paper by AAX Research explores this question at length.

Entitled “Bitcoin in 2021” and ostensibly compiled to provide investors with food for intellectual thought, the 23-page document from AAX summarizes the asset’s history as an investable commodity and analyzes metrics such as trade volume and liquidity to suggest what might be on the horizon. The paper also looks at growing institutional support for the currency, with reference to the actions of major players like Grayscale, PayPal, and Square.

While many readers might understandably sift through the pages in a bid to learn how valuable bitcoin might be a year down the line, such papers are – of course – inexact sciences. Nonetheless, they are useful for providing context and summarizing the various factors that might coalesce to push bitcoin in one direction or another.

Reflecting on the events of 2020, for example, the paper perspicaciously observes that “soon after the first $1,200 stimulus checks were handed out in the U.S. to reduce the immediate impact of mandatory lockdowns, Coinbase and other cryptocurrency exchanges noticed a significant increase in deposits of the exact same amount by US clients.”

As we know, bitcoin enjoyed major highs and lows last year. In March, in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, the asset tumbled to a 12-month low of $3,867. At that stage panic was the prevailing sentiment and investors were dumping perceived risk-on assets en masse. For many, the world had unalterably changed and bitcoin’s status as a safe-haven was invalidated overnight.

How quickly those bearish impressions changed. As the AAX paper notes, bitcoin “bounced back by approximately 162% in the 55 days following its mass sell-off,” compared to a 47% rise in the S&P 500. By the end of the year it had surpassed its previous all-time high and surged confidently towards $30,000, a milestone it achieved early in the New Year. So, what’s next?

According to AAX, bitcoin has now entered its “Decade of Adoption,” and citing advancements in accessibility, infrastructure, volume and liquidity – not to mention the sustained resilience of the wider crypto markets – the authors are bullish.

Despite the stock to flow model indicating that bitcoin could hit $100,000 by the end of 2021, they believe this is rather unrealistic, concluding that key targets for 2021 are $36,000 and $55,000. Moreover, they speculate that $55,000 could be hit within the first quarter.

So, what kind of sentiments are being expressed elsewhere? How big a year could bitcoin have in 2021?

According to investment bank JPMorgan Chase, competition with gold could push the cryptocurrency’s market capitalization beyond $2.5 trillion in the long term, implying a theoretical price target of $146,000. The bank’s strategists did, of course, stress that this figure was unlikely to be seen in 2021. A more modest projection was “between $50k-$100k,” though such price levels would prove unsustainable.

Another major Wall Street firm, Citibank, is even more bullish than JPMorgan. According to a leaked report, senior analyst Tom Fitzpatrick believes bitcoin could hit a high of $318,000 by the end of the year. Fitzpatrick echoed a common refrain among bitcoiners by referring to the asset as “21st century gold.”

— The TIE (@TheTIEIO) January 3, 2021

To some, these predictions will seem outlandish. To others, they are reasonable, particularly given the fiat currency debasement that is the logical consequence of stimulus packages on an eye-watering scale. Governments around the world are continuing to print obscene sums of money to prop up economies that are struggling due to enforced shutdowns and supply-chain disruption. To those who enthusiastically endorse six-figure price predictions, bitcoin’s status as digital gold has been confirmed in the wake of such measures.

One thing all analysts seem to agree on when it comes to BTC price modeling: in 2021, number will go up.

Most of the top 100 cryptocurrencies on CoinMarketCap are seeing double-digit gains as the bullish momentum in the market spills over the weekend. And with the anticipation of a $3 trillion stimulus package from the government, the crypto market may still go on a long bull ride.

But Bitcoin is gradually consolidating while many traders are flocking to altcoins in hope of better gains. As a result, most of the altcoins have risen beyond expectations.

Although there are worries about the huge Bitcoin inflows into South Korean Exchanges by Bitcoin whales, other factors are keeping investors optimistic. Fundamental factors such as decreasing supply and miner sentiment have kept investors feeling optimistic about the future price of Bitcoin.

Several stakeholders and experts have also opined that the recent bullish movement of the top cryptocurrency is a result of outflow from gold.

Bitcoin (BTC) reached another milestone in its price, as the coin hit a new all-time high of $41,940 on January 8. However, it has now entered a consolidation phase as the cryptocurrency tries to push prices higher after hitting a new support level.

Without any form of price ceiling, it is difficult to predict where the price of Bitcoin is heading. Head of trading at CrossTower Chad Steinglass stated that Bitcoin could be experiencing increased volatility until it goes to a more stable balanced flow environment. By then, Bitcoin’s price will be more stable, he added.

History has shown that anytime the market stays bullish for some time, it overflows into most of the altcoins, which is exactly how the term “altcoin season” came about.

In most cases, a consolidated phase always comes after the rise in the price of Bitcoin. The market is currently witnessing that phase now. During this phase, traders tend to divert their attention from Bitcoin to altcoins because they believe they will make more gains. Several altcoins have almost doubled their value, and they could still rise further if the bullish trend continues.

A partner at ExoAlpha, Jean Baptiste Pavageau, stated that the present bullish momentum will not last very long. It will eventually slow down, which will lead investors to pile up their investments in altcoins.

He said that trend has already started from last week, as investors are reducing their grip on Bitcoin while throwing more funds into the purchase of altcoins.

Bitcoin SV, Bitcoin Cash, and Ether have all risen considerably. Interestingly, many experts are predicting a more bullish run for the altcoins.

In the investing world, money talks. On rare occasions, however, vindication is even better than a giant mountain of cash. Over the past decade, the true believers of the cryptocurrency revolution have turned what was once considered an oddball peanut gallery in the financial world into the next trillion-dollar asset class. And as they count their digital coin, they’re ready to take a bow.

Take Cameron Winklevoss, the cryptocurrency entrepreneur who alongside his twin brother Tyler sued Facebook, claiming Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for the social networking site. In 2012, the Winklevii took the relative pittance Zuckerberg flicked at them to go away and stashed it in Bitcoin. They were mocked for years. Two Harvard-educated rowers seeking fame and fortune in digital currencies—alongside nerds, anarchists, speculators and worse. Now Bitcoin is soaring to new highs and pulling in a stampede of followers from mainstream finance and society. As Zuckerberg has become more controversial, the Winklevii have something to say about moving on from Facebook: Good riddance.

“Bitcoin has surpassed Facebook $FB in market cap,” tweeted Cameron Winklevoss as Bitcoin soared over $40,000 per coin, then $41,000 and beyond, on Friday. Added Winklevoss, “Makes sense that a money network would be more valuable than a social network.” Sure, the Winklevii still have a lot of catching up to do—Mark Zuckerberg is worth $94 billion—but the bravado isn’t exactly misguided: the recent surge in crypto means that Forbes estimates each of the Winklevii owns $1.4 billion in digital assets, as of Monday morning, more than double what they were worth just a month ago.

Over the past year, the gravity-defying stock market has given most investors a reason to grin, but none are smiling wider than bitcoin holders. While the S&P 500 has jumped 17% from the start of January 2020 through January 11, 2021, bitcoin has spiked 400% in that same time, breaching $40,000 a coin and sweeping other digital assets into its rising tide. All cryptocurrencies are now collectively worth more than $920 billion, according to crypto research site Messari, down from roughly $1 trillion on Friday.

One key factor driving the frenzy: As Covid led the Federal Reserve to print trillions of dollars to stimulate the economy and head off a recession, investors increasingly saw bitcoin as a hedge against inflation. Unlike the 2017 price rally from $1,000 to $19,000, which was driven by retail investors, the recent uptick has been propelled by large institutional investments and a proliferation of ways to buy and store crypto. 

In 2020, payments giant Square used $50 million of its corporate treasury to buy bitcoin—an investment now valued at $161 million. Hedge fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones said as much as 2% of his assets were in crypto, and private equity giant Northern Trust revealed plans to make it easier for its clients to store bitcoin, ethereum, XRP, litecoin and bitcoin cash. PayPal lets its 300 million customers buy bitcoin and spend it at any of the 26 million merchants it supports.

Along the way, some crypto investors have gotten very rich. At least five have recently crossed into the billionaire ranks, possibly quite a few more. Using everything from publicly available digital wallets to old-fashioned reporting, we set out to identify some of the biggest winners of this latest crypto boom. It is by no means a complete ranking but captures just how much some fortunes have soared.

All cryptocurrency values are as of January 11, 2021 at 8 am ET. For Forbes’ last cryptocurrency billionaires list from February 2018, we calculated the value of entrepreneurs’ company stakes and their cryptocurrency investments. For this list, we only included their cryptocurrency investments.

The cofounders of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, which now does about $300 million a day in digital asset trades, were among the first recognizable names to buy bitcoin. By April 2013 the entrepreneurs, who initially rose to fame for hiring Mark Zuckerberg to build a precursor to Facebook (and later sued Facebook for stealing their idea), reportedly owned $11 million worth of bitcoin, then valued at about $120 per coin. Assuming they’ve held onto most of those coins and their ether tokens, they’d each hold more than $1.4 billion in digital assets. (The brothers declined to comment.)

In the late 1990’s and early 2000s, Roszak worked in venture capital and as an entrepreneur (he also settled insider trading charges in 2006) before buying his first bitcoins in 2012. Today his day job is cofounder and chairman of Bloq, a five-year-old blockchain technology startup with clients like Citigroup and Discover. Bloq consults on everything from payment processing for “stablecoins”—or cryptocurrencies pegged to a traditional currency’s value—to helping banks store digital assets securely. Roszak has long been a crypto evangelist and recently co-led an initiative to give every member of Congress $50 worth of digital assets. Forbes estimates his crypto net worth is $1.2 billion, up from roughly $300 million a year ago. “This is going to be the Roaring 20’s for bitcoin,” he told Forbes.

Part of the Silicon Valley-based Draper family investing dynasty, in 1985 he became a founding partner of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a venture capital firm that has made hundreds of investments in companies ranging from Tesla to the now-defunct blood testing company Theranos. In 2014, he says, he bought 29,656 bitcoins that had been confiscated by the U.S. Marshals from the shuttered Silk Road black market for $18.7 million (price: just $632 per coin). “Dollars are the currency of the past,” Draper told Forbes in an email. “Bitcoin is the currency of the future. What we are seeing now is the global anthropological transition from dollars to bitcoin. Seeing this, I continue to be a HODLer and a BUYMOREer.” Draper declined Forbes’ requests for an interview. Assuming Draper has held onto everything he bought in 2014, his crypto would be worth $1.1 billion.

The CEO of business analytics firm MicroStrategy exploded onto the bitcoin scene in 2020, leading MicroStrategy to invest more than $1.1 billion in the cryptocurrency at an average price of about $15,964 (those coins are now worth $2.4 billion). He cited concerns about the devaluation of the U.S. dollar as a result of the Federal Reserve printing trillions of dollars, and is now leading an effort to customize his company’s software to analyze bitcoin data. MicroStrategy’s stock has quadrupled since it announced its first bitcoin purchase on August 11. In October, Saylor revealed that he had personally spent about $175 million on 17,732 bitcoins; —today, they’re worth $600 million. Add that to his $1.2 billion stake in MicroStrategy and we’ve got another new billionaire.“The American Dream requires that the currency be sound,” says Saylor.

After a series of bad investments evaporated much of his wealth, this hedge fund titan from Goldman Sachs and Fortress Group has been reborn a crypto guru. Novogratz is the founder and CEO of Galaxy Investment Partners, which specializes in investing and developing cryptocurrency-related services. In 2013 he reportedly personally invested $7 million in bitcoin, later using those assets as Galaxy’s seed funding. Based on disclosures from September 2020, Forbes estimates Galaxy’s crypto assets are worth about $621 million, a 300% jump in four months. Since Novogratz owns 77% of the company, that makes his stake worth $478 million. This does not include cryptocurrency he might personally own, which he declined to disclose.

The inventor of Ethereum—the second-largest cryptocurrency network, now valued at $123 billion—has also gotten a big bump lately. He is better known for his academic and social interest in cryptocurrency than for being an investor. But that doesn’t mean he’s a martyr for his cause. He currently owns more than 333,000 ether, worth roughly $360 million. One year ago, those same digital coins would have been worth just $45 million.

With additional reporting by John Hyatt.

Hot on the heels of Coinbase, New York-based rival crypto exchange Gemini could also be going public.

Encouraged by a swell tide of interest in crypto, Co-Founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss told Bloomberg they are open to the idea.

“We are definitely considering it and making sure that we have that option.

We are watching the market and we are also having internal discussions on whether it makes sense for us at this point in time.”

Recently, the total crypto market cap pushed past $1.1 trillion for the first time. This would suggest public confidence in the “crypto experiment” has never been higher.

Although a wobble, earlier this week, saw sell-offs tank the market by as much as $260 billion, this phase was short-lived.

Today sees a resurgence of buyers, who, once again, have pushed the total crypto market cap back above $1 trillion.

With that in mind, should the Winklevoss twins strike now whilst the going is good?

One firm with no qualms about its public reception, or where the market may head, is Coinbase.

Rumors of a Coinbase initial public offering were intensifying during Q3 last year.

— Laura Shin (@laurashin) September 11, 2020

But it wasn’t until mid-December that things became official.

The day following Bitcoin’s break of $20k, the firm announced it had filed the appropriate paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Coinbase Global, Inc. today announced that it has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).”

What’s significant about this is not so much the act of going public. Rather, from an industry perspective, the Coinbase IPO acts as a big validator for Bitcoin and crypto in general.

As well as that, a public listed Coinbase will facilitate further institutional exposure to cryptocurrencies.

In short, this could be the start of mainstream adoption.

Gemini recently announced a milestone achievement in surpassing $10 billion in crypto under custody. The firm is also diversifying its product range with the Gemini rewards credit card for U.S. residents. The card offers rewards of up to 3 percent payable in Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, on each purchase deposited to a Gemini account.

Although it does much smaller volumes than Coinbase, an equivalent of 6,108 BTC in the last 24-hours versus 89,604 BTC on Coinbase Pro, it’s still a significant player in the U.S. region.

And equally as important, one with a reputation to match Coinbase’s.

As such, it would be significant for the industry to have more crypto representation on public exchanges.

The biggest crypto-related news of the month is that of Coinbase filing a draft S1 document to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, signaling its intent to go public in the weeks and months ahead.

Wall Street is coming for crypto and how.

Just minutes ago, Coinbase revealed via its Twitter and blog that it has confidentially submitted a draft registration (S1) form to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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Today sees the Bitcoin bulls mounting a fightback following the weekend slide.

The price of Bitcoin is hovering under $37,000 after the correction from $40,000 in the past 72 hours.

A large narrative over the past few months is the introduction of institutional capital to the Bitcoin space.

The Google Search all-time high for Ethereum comes following the growing gains the coin has amassed on its way to beat its all-time high price above $1,400. While the 100% Google Search mark shows how much popularity Ethereum is gaining, the figure has shown how much interest people have in the coin in place of Bitcoin (BTC), the coin whose growth has impacted on the other coins in the cryptosphere.

The google trend for Bitcoin is short of its ATH of 100% set in December 2017, the point where Bitcoin hit its first significant all-time high. The trend result now is 62% against that of Ethereum at 100%

Mainstream Media Coverage Not Impacting Bitcoin’s Google Searches

Bitcoin has seen a significant uptick in mainstream media coverage in the past month following its meteoric rise to a new all-time high at $40,000 for the first time in its 12 year history. The activities that resulted in Bitcoin reaching this milestone which includes the pumping of cash by Institutional investors have consistently made headlines putting BTC at the forefront of investors’ interests.

Despite this reality, however, new interests in BTC as depicted by the Google trend searches still paled behind that of Ethereum. This can be attributed to the fact that Bitcoin is redefining the concept of “Overbought” and investors are seeking alternatives and solace in the next best coin. 

The last 25 days have been breathtaking for bitcoin and the entire crypto market. Less than a month ago, bitcoin crossed $20k, then 10 days later, it crossed $25k and then, with without breaking its stride, it crossed $30k.The bitcoin boom has gone into overdrive this week. A few days ago, bitcoin’s price has crossed $40k. In less than one month, bitcoin’s price has doubled and the total value of entire cryptocurrency market, for the first time ever, passed $1 trillion on Wednesday. What a wild ride it has been for bitcoin in the last three years. In 2017, the bitcoin price soared from less than $1,000 at the beginning of the year to around $20,000 in under 12 months. Then it all disappeared. By December 2018, bitcoin was worth less than 4,000 bucks a coin. The primary difference between now and 2017 is that reputation risks have dissipated and more people than ever are using bitcoin as an exit from the traditional financial system, as opposed to a purely speculative investment. The only risks now are glitches in the technology or a risk-off swoon like what happened in the first quarter of 2020. When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon river on January 10 in 49 BC, he ended the Roman Republic. But the reality is that the Republic had ended much earlier, corroded by decades of corruption and conflict. The Covid-19 pandemic has clearly reshuffled the cards and has become bitcoin’s “Rubicon moment.” Will you be able to buy a cup of coffee with bitcoin? Probably not with the current version of Bitcoin. But just like Caesar laid the foundation for the empire that followed, bitcoin is laying the foundation for the economic changes that coming and will stretch well into this century, transforming the way money is created, distributed and spent.

Ilias Louis Hatzis is the founder and CEO at Kryptonio, a “keyless” non-custodial bitcoin and cryptocurrency wallet, that lets users manage bitcoin and crypto, without private keys or passwords.

Last year was a very special year for bitcoin, with its price up by almost 400% over the past 12 months, an incredible return compared to other asset classes. However, it will be nothing compared to what will happen in 2021.

There are growing expectations that bitcoin is set to become even more mainstream. There are a lot of institutional buyers out there and bitcoin has become the preferred investment against the dollar inflation, hedge or gold. This has driven bitcoin demand to 3x the supply. Compared to 2017 when demand came from the retail market, this rally has been much more institutionally driven But retail investors will eventually be back again. We are already seeing signs of retail interest ramping up. If you look at the number of times bitcoin has been Googled, these levels are 5x what they were a few months ago. As far as payments go, the integration into PayPal’s platform is a step in the right direction. There’s also a whole heap of additional scalability improvements being worked on the technology itself.

The value of all bitcoins in circulation is now more than $700 billion and the total value for all cryptocurrencies is more than $1 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin’s dominance in the cryptocurrency market is at 70%. As both retail and institutional investors alike continue to realize that bitcoin can serve as a hedge against inflation, as well as a yield-bearing asset, through the use of DeFI apps, you can expect this dominance to increase even more in 2021.

In the long run, bitcoin will be the only cryptocurrency that will matter. it’s entirely possible that bitcoin eventually breaks $100,000 per coin, by the end of 2021.

We’re reaching an inflection point where bitcoin will essentially become the reserve currency of the internet. This is a shift in thinking about currencies, that economist Milton Friedman predicted could happen as far back in the 90s, when the internet and the concepts of digital currencies first appeared.

For global regulators and central banks, bitcoin and crypto is no longer an abstract curiosity. They represent a threat to the financial orthodoxy. That is why, different central banks are prepping their CBDCs and when they are finally deployed, governments will have far more control of your money.  With their new CBDCs, they will be able to censor your transactions for any reason and will be able to confiscate your money much easier, compared to what they can do with the existing banking system. This is only going to drive more people to bitcoin.

While it’s difficult to say what will happen, or how high prices will go, we can be confident that cryptocurrency is not going away anytime soon. Bitcoin has cemented its place as a worthwhile investment and 2021 will be a pivotal year with much greater institutional and retail investor adoption. The ongoing issues around the cost and speed of bitcoin transactions means it’s still not a great payment option, but Paypal and Square are changing that and in 2021 bitcoin could be used to make payments. This year will be remembered for the rise of digital money. The groundwork is now in place for more mainstream adoption of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies at the same time the rails are being established for the use of digital currency for payments.

Sooner or later, bitcoin’s price will experience a major correction. However, the low will be higher than previous lows and eventually bitcoin’s price will bounce back, as it always does, passing previous highs to reach new levels. So, your strategy should be the long game, continuously buy what you can afford and HODL

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Bitcoin bull and hedge fund manager Anthony Pompliano says a new class of capital will make its way into Bitcoin.

The Morgan Creek Digital co-founder tells CNBC’s Market Alert that Bitcoin is growing into an asset that attracts investors from all sectors of the financial landscape.

Pompliano says that the Federal Reserve has implemented new money printing policies that have already inspired small and large investors to place their funds in store of value assets such as metals, real estate and most notably, Bitcoin.

“Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve ran a $3 trillion marketing campaign for store of value or inflation hedge assets in 2020 and whether you believe inflation is actually going to occur or not there’s a fear of inflation and so investors are moving capital into precious metals, Bitcoin, real estate, etcetera.

I think that Bitcoin has been the big winner out of that group… Now what we’re watching is we’re watching Bitcoin really go from a contrarian trade on Wall Street to a consensus trade.

You had retail come in first, now you have institutions and I think next you’ll see corporations. Everyone from Fortune 100 companies on down will start to put Bitcoin on their balance sheets and then eventually we’re going to see central banks around the world start to put this into their reserves. Right now we’re kind of transitioning from retail to institutions and after that we’ll go from institutions into the corporates.“

The Pomp Podcast host says that as Bitcoin finds a place on new balance sheets, its superiority as a store of value asset will become more apparent, possibly allowing it to transition into the prominent global digital currency.

“And again it’s just – Bitcoin is a better asset. If you compare it to something like gold it’s a 10x improvement form a technical standpoint off of gold as a store of value use case is kind of a low hanging fruit and then if you start to look at it as an actual digital currency , a decentralized digital currency… Can it rise to global reserve status I think that’s the big question investors around the world are speculating on and we’ll find out how the market plays out here over the coming years.“

As for Bitcoin’s recent price plunge, the Morgan Creek co-founder says it is par for the course during a Bitcoin bull market.

“From a price perspective, remember that Bitcoin was trading at $10,000 in October of 2020. So it basically went up 400% in less than 90 days, kind of had this parabolic run and so it had a 20% retracement. That’s pretty natural.

If you go back to the 2017 bull run Bitcoin between 2016 and 2017 when it more than 20x’d in price, it had five corrections of over 30% and so naturally what you’re going to get is you’re going to get these mini boom and bust cycles… I think what we’re seeing here is this is kind of the first correction but it’s still higher than it was in October of 2020 and we’re going to continue to see it move higher and higher in the coming months.“

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Gorodenkoff

The price of Bitcoin is now double its historic, 2017 all-time high. Let that sink in for a minute.

At $40,000 per coin, Bitcoin bulls are pushing prices to the max, and the way things are going, that enthusiasm doesn’t appear to be disappearing any time soon. But unlike the bull run of 2017, when a buying frenzy eventually led many to believe that the crypto bubble was ready to pop, this run shows different characteristics.

Rather than parabolic, short-term growth, Bitcoin has been on a steady upward trajectory since March last year. It has not stopped growing in terms of daily performance since then. And today, after starting the day at around $36,859, it maintained its momentum until finally breaking through the $40,000 psychological barrier.

The jump, while impressive, was entirely expected by many important players in the industry. CF Benchmarks CEO Sui Chung told Decrypt that this price rally appears to him to be the perfect time to boost crypto adoption

"Less than a month after Bitcoin broke through $20k, its price has doubled to $40k. The Free Float Market Cap of Bitcoin now stands on the cusp of $600bn, with that of the entire asset class fast approaching $1 trillion.” (It has since crossed that mark .)

According to Chung, the skyrocketing price of Bitcoin is making it harder for crypto critics to deny that we’re witnessing the maturation of an entirely new asset class. “This could be the ‘broadband moment’ for cryptocurrency — where every company and individual needs to think seriously about how they engage and interact with cryptocurrency," he said.

It’s worth noting, however, that big, round numbers have historically been difficult barriers to overcome. And with big pumps in crypto often come big, er, corrections .

Bitcoin’s relative strength index (RSI), a metric that measures the balance between buyers and sellers in a marker, is high, which indicates that a lot of traders are rushing to buy as much BTC as they can at the moment. That could mean that a big sell off is around the corner.

Meanwhile, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index also indicates that markets expect a major price increase. This level of hype does look a lot like 2017. The difference this time, though, is the presence of major institutional investors in the Bitcoin market, which have created significant scarcity in the asset. This scarcity effect could potentially grow stronger if these firms stick to their guns and HODL that Bitcoin long term.

The Bitcoin Halving—a once in four years event that reduced mining rewards and essentially halved the daily incoming supply of Bitcoin—is also playing a role in this. There is now less Bitcoin being injected into the markets, and this statistic is now more obvious than ever.

Right now, there is much less Bitcoin on crypto exchanges than in previous years. That HODL mentality is growing, it seems.

The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.

Bitcoin is once again trading in unchartered territory as its heated parabolic rally drives it to $40K. The world’s leading cryptocurrency started another rally in yesterday’s late sessions and broke the $36,000 and $36,500 resistance levels.

The BTC price even spiked above $37K and hit a new price record close to $37,400 before the rally slowed down momentarily. The bulls took over again in today’s sessions, resulting in a massive jump past the $38,500 and $39,000 levels.

As of this article’s writing, BTCUSD has broken the $40K mark for the first time in history, in what seems to be a full-fledged parabolic upswing that looks set to push the pair even higher in the coming      BTCUSD Chart By TradingView 

Today’s great climb higher has now seen BTC set multiple new all-time highs over the past 24 hours before finally breaching the much awaited $40K barrier. BTC is now up 15% in the past 24 hours and has gained over 40% in the past seven days alone. 

The flagship’s cryptocurrency has seen its market cap also shoot up to nearly $700 billion, bringing it even closer to challenging gold’s market cap. The coin now accounts for almost 70% of the entire crypto market cap, which recently breached the $1 trillion mark.

BTC Price Surge Has Yet to Enter “Overheated” Territory

The whole finance world stands in awe of Bitcoin’s astronomical rally over the past few weeks that has been fueled primarily by a surge in both retail and institutional interest.

Even as the top crypto asset continues to enjoy a prolific run as bulls take aim at the $40K mark, on-chain metrics indicate that the boom in value is only just getting started. 

One on-chain analyst explained in a recent tweet that this current uptick still has a long way to go before it shows signs of exhaustion compared to past parabolic uptrends.

“This rally is warm but not yet overheated. This is how much ‘speculative premium’ we have right now compared to similar phases of the prior 2 bull markets,” analyst Willy Woo noted while sharing the chart below. 

                       BTC Premium Above NVT Price by Willy Woo | Source Woonomics 

Cardano (ADA) Rallies Higher

Bitcoin’s unrelenting uptrend has created massive tailwinds for the entire crypto market over the past few weeks. One of the primary beneficiaries of this boost from big brother bitcoin is ADA, which started a strong surge above $0.2800 and $0.2850. 

ADA recently surpassed Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in terms of market cap to sit in sixth on the list according to data from CoinMarketCap.

The native token of the Cardano project, which has some exciting upgrades lined up in 2021, has now gained over 80% this week alone. The ADAUSD pair is trading for $0.3214 at press time and is likely to continue higher in the near            ADAUSD Chart By TradingView