KEY POINTS

  • Bitcoin will go beyond $20,000 in 2020 according to BitPay's Sonny Singh
  • BTC catalyst for this year's rally will not be the halving
  • The popular crypto is driven by unforeseen events

It's past the two-year mark now when Bitcoin (BTC) hit its highest point at $20,000: 2018 was a year-long dry spell, and 2019 brought back hopes but fell short at $13,000. Is it now just a distant reality to see BTC back in its glory days? For the chief commercial officer of Atlanta-based bitcoin payment service provider BitPay, it's not.

Sonny Singh who spoke to Bloomberg Technology predicts that the most popular crypto by market cap will be back to its December 2017 high this year. According to Singh, he made a similar prediction on the show the year before that BTC will soar to $15,000, which did almost happen.

As to what will be the catalyst for this year's move, Singh said that it's not going to be the halving like what most of those in the crypto space expect. To Singh, the halving is already factored in and what he suggests as the main driver for a Bitcoin rally will be the unexpected events, citing the announcement of Facebook's Libra as an example that pushed BTC higher in 2019.

For 2020, Singh identified scenarios like China, Russia, and India legalizing the crypto, Libra competitors or any other unforeseen events that could do the job in propping up BTC's price.

The correlation of BTC to macro events was also touched on as the king of cryptos seems to tick upward when there are economic uncertainties on the horizon, strengthening the case for BTC as a safe haven asset.

On Wednesday, as Iran attacked U.S. bases in Iraq, global stocks were down, but Bitcoin traded higher and broke past $8,000. How BTC appreciated yesterday was seen as the kind of move gold makes in similar stressful situations.

Bitcoin has fallen below $8,000, as of press time, which comes after President Trump de-escalating the tensions between the U.S. and Iran in his speech early this morning.

At $7,937, Bitcoin is still at its highest point in nearly two months and on a technical standpoint, it's closed above the range on Jan. 7 that kept prices bounded between below $8,000 and $6,000.

Bitcoin
Bitcoin investment platform BitConnect has shut down its exchange services. TheDigitalArtist/Pixabay