With cryptocurrency prices nosediving now and then, the market is as volatile as ever. After a mega run where Bitcoin touched the $60k mark and Ethereum touched $4k the same month (a rise of over 2100%) in April 2021, the cryptocurrency pundits were bullish. But the recent crypto crashes and incidents like the fall of Sam Bankman-Fried-owned FTX and the fall of Terra Luna value to zero have raised a fresh round of questions on the future of cryptocurrencies and NFTs. In 2022, crypto markets saw $2 trillion in wealth wiped off.
The excitement about the surge in the crypto market was understandable. Crypto investors were making money from the market. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and several other cryptos made money for their investors. Some made fortunes from the soaring prices of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, and others were ones who sold it before seeing their investments multiplying. Effectively, during that time, the percentage of people who suffered a loss in crypto trading was very low.
The biggest questions around the cryptocurrency market
The big question after the crypto prices tumbled and the highest ever Bitcoin price rolled back to around $30k, and Ethereum highest ever price fell to below $2k is what exactly the future of cryptocurrencies is, and where are NFTs headed? It’s evident how volatile the crypto market is and how some tokens like Titan, where billionaire Mark Cuban invested and lost everything, can disappear in a matter of a few days. The price of the Titan token fell from $64.04 to almost zero, and Mark Cuban regretted not doing enough mathematics on Titan cryptocurrency.
Major cryptocurrency Terra Luna fell by 100% within a period of 7 days in May 2022. Its value was zero, so many crypto exchanges delisted or suspended its trading.
So, the top crypto experts are still left wondering when will there be a time when:
Will the cryptocurrency market gain stability while shedding off the volatile tag completely?
What is that cryptocurrency math that Mark Cuban talked about? Is there really a formula that you can use to predict the success and failure of newly-launched or existing tokens?
Which cryptocurrencies are here to stay long-term? When will Bitcoin be $100k and Ethereum $10k)
What is the future of the entire cryptocurrency market (especially Bitcoin, Ethereum and other established names)?
What’s the future of NFT (Non-fungible tokens)?
Is there a way to predict the cryptocurrency market?
Contemplating the above questions will lead to a lot of hypothetical arguments based on a hypothetical situation. In trading, whether stocks or crypto, it’s only the real data that matters. The big problem with the cryptocurrency market is that not even data mining can enable you to predict the market.
The market is new, still evolving, and unregulated in many ways and not every person has truly made efforts to stick to it and show confidence in it. This is all very natural, though. It happens in every kind of new venture, and when the stakes are in billions, the problems cannot be written off as the usual teething problems. Here, there’s much more to it.
What did Coinbase Co-Founder say about NFT? What does it mean for the crypto future?
A crypto prediction, which really had some material in it, was from Coinbase Co-Founder and ex-Goldman Sachs foreign exchange trader Fred Ehrsam. Going by the parallel he draws between the internet and crypto, the cryptocurrency market is very much like the initial internet days, where millions and millions of websites mushroomed over a few years, and the internet became an overcrowded place. It’s similar in the case of NFTs, and in the coming 3 to 5 years, more than 90% of the NFTs will be of no worth.
Going by that, a similar thing might be said about cryptocurrencies as well. Just like a market correction sets the price right and forces all the non-valuable firms out of the market, a boom in the number of cryptocurrency launches will mean a correction in the crypto market down the line, which will wipe out a big part of the crowd. Only the strongest (or say the real value-offering ones) will survive to exist in the long-term of maybe forever.
Are Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Cardano here to stay?
Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), and some others like Cardano (ADA), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), etc., have already proven a point and have spent enough time in the crypto world while gaining confidence in the crypto investors. Their market value fell drastically after the crypto crash in 2022, but they still remain the top cryptocurrencies.
Some others are picking up, and they look promising. But the baseline remains that a further correction in the crypto market is yet to take place. During this time, the crypto markets will remain volatile, and factors like tweets from Elon Musk (which have stopped after his Twitter takeover) and China’s and other countries' crackdown on the miners, legalization issues and regulations will continue to play a big role in deciding the curve movement on crypto exchanges.
The investors who are firm believers in cryptocurrencies don’t think of the ‘usual curiosity-filled questions’ and are rather more focused on questions like when will Bitcoin touch $100k, when will Ethereum cross the $10k mark, when will Cardano be $100 or Dogecoin be $1 and then $10. As mentioned, that’s for the firm crypto believers, though. For small investors in crypto and day traders who look back to cryptocurrency exchange platforms numerous times a day, the questions are the usual ones.
Should I invest in the cryptocurrency market based on predictions from experts?
Whether it’s Mark Cuban or Fred Ehrsam, Elon Musk or Bill Gates, the predictions will make the crypto market more volatile. So, you can be sure that you have some swings to enjoy for half a decade or so. Getting rich, losing all the money, buying the dip and still seeing your investment going awry – it all happens in the crypto market. The best advice from top investors is to invest only if you have already saved enough for your future.
