Bitwise analyst Ryan Rasmussen gave his bullish prediction on Bitcoin (BTC) saying that it might be heading to $80K by 2024. The forecast is anchored on the growing preference for stablecoins in the payments sector and other factors.
Bitcoin’s Road to $80K
Ryan Rasmussen, a senior crypto research analyst at Bitwise, recently outlined his take on Bitcoin. He started with the consensus’ bullish narrative grounded on the anticipated launch of spot Bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs) in the US and the halving — all happening in the first four months of 2024. Then, he went on to discuss how the new financial instruments could capture 1% or $72 billion assets under management (AUM) of the $7.2 trillion ETF market.
Rasmussen pointed out that the rising adoption of stablecoins in payments could drive the bullish narrative of Bitcoin. He recounted how these crypto “killer apps” have gone from zero to a $137 billion market in the past four years. In the past quarter, the trading volume of stablecoins peaked at $5 trillion compared to Visa’s $9 trillion processed transactions. The analyst sees a further tip in the scale in favor of stablecoins in the following years.
Interestingly, the expert believes artificial intelligence (AI) assistants will emerge as new players in the industry, which will likely utilize digitally native money like Bitcoin or stablecoins for payment settlement. This will reinforce the idea of crypto as “the native currency of the Internet.”
Rasmussen also projected that more than $100 million will be staked in decentralized prediction markets for event-based and conventional sports-related betting. Again, Bitcoin and stablecoins will likely be tied in this trend.
Lastly, the ease of access to Bitcoin will result in more financial advisors allocating to crypto in clients’ accounts.
Other Nuggets of Crypto-Related Forecasts by Bitwise
Besides Bitcoin, Rasmussen tackled how Ethereum (ETH) will benefit from the 2024 crypto bull market. He noted that a major upgrade to Ether next year will pull down its transaction costs by over 90% to $0.01, which is certain to entice more users into its ecosystem. It could consequently bring in more revenue for the crypto, estimated to be two times from today’s $2.3 billion to $5 billion.
And when it comes to crypto exchanges, Coinbase will benefit the most in the US market rush and Bitwise estimates the company will surpass Wall Street expectations by over ten times. The former’s 2024 analytics data estimates a $5.69 billion revenue for the exchange compared to the latter’s $3.1 billion outlook. That’s over 100% more than the assessed earnings of Coinbase this year at $2.845 billion.