The founder of cryptocurrency payments start-up Abra feels that there’s a lot of exaggeration involved in the reports of bitcoin’s imminent death. Bill Barhydt indeed predicts better days ahead for the widely popular digital currency, and it’s not just blind optimism that backs him.

Institutional Investors Have yet to Take Over the Market

Speaking at an interview, Barhydt explained that the price of bitcoin and other digital currencies would rise again in 2018.

The reason? Institutional investors and billion-dollar hedge funds, who have thus far not invested in cryptocurrencies, have decided that it is worth their time and investment.

From a total market cap of $800 Billion in mid-December, the market has slowly crept to $300 million as of the time of press, representing a 50 percent drop in value.

However, the Abra CEO believes this shall change soon.

(Source: Coinmarketcap)

“I talk to hedge funds, high net worth individuals, even commodity speculators. They look at the volatility in the crypto markets and they see it as a huge opportunity. We’re getting closer and closer to real clarity in the Western Hedge funds that it’s OK putting half a percent of your assets into crypto,” added Barhydt in his Interview.

While a half percent investment would fail to reshape the market, which accounts for more than $134 billion, it would be enough to instill confidence in the minds of cryptocurrency observers.

This would, in turn, persuade hedge funds and asset managers into believing that cryptocurrency is a safe bet if they previously refrained from thinking so.

“There really is zero large-scale institutional money from the west in crypto right now,” Barhydt continued.

“That is happening in Japan. Once a [large] sizable chunk of Western institutional money starts to come in — watch out. Institutional interest is now starting to grow regardless of the Google trends.”

The public’s interest in crypto and the value of cryptocurrencies have a strangely tight correlation, as measured by Google Trends data.

This relationship implies that individual investors were the main reason behind the meteoric rise of bitcoin in December and January when it nearly touched $20,000.

Japanese Investment Houses The Real MVP’s

Japanese investment institutions, according to Barhydt, were the underdogs during December and January, when the price of cryptocurrency surged.

They made significant investments in cryptocurrencies during December, when the price of bitcoin alone jumped from around $7,500 to nearly $20,000.

Taking into account the far greater collective rise of American and European financial institutions, their respective speculation in cryptocurrency could see an outpouring that belittles what happened in the past few months, and possibly without the reversal that followed.

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Author: BTCManager.com