The founder of a cryptocurrency business based in Silicon Valley believes that the market will boom again in 2018 once the giant investors move in the market instead of just watching from the sidelines.
Abra, founded by Bill Barhydt, is a digital wallet for smartphones that lets people buy and hold up to 20 cryptocurrencies and 50 fiat currencies with the help of smart contracts. Amidst most of the financial analysts' speculation about Bitcoin as death cross graph, Barhydt has shown a tremendous amount of trust in the crypto sector and claims that Bitcoin is all set for the next market rise.
While the crypto market is fumbling lately, Barhydt is confident that this prices will soon recover as asset managers, hedge funds, and other institutional investors dip their toe in crypto.
Bill Barhydt said,
"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. Once that happens, all hell will break loose."
Cryptocurrencies had exploded both in price and popularity in winter 2017 before Christmas. But the market soon declined from over $800 billion in mid-December to $125 billion as of today. The prices have massively dropped due to the fall in traffic for crypto-related topics in Google Search. To this, Barhydt argues that such instances in the market create “space to grow.” He added, that Institutional interest is now starting to grow regardless of the Google trends.
He also revealed that many financial institutions have already started with their crypto investment at the end of the last year. Barhydt stated,
"There really is zero large-scale institutional money from the west in crypto right now. That is happening in Japan. Once a arge sizable chunk of Western institutional money starts to come in - watch out."
He predicts that market will see sunlight as altcoins gain the attention of the right investors. He said,
"People are really interested in altcoins, what's going to be the next big thing."
Regulators around the world are steadily watching cryptocurrency markets for any illegal activities. While SEC is investing and reporting statements on unlawful trading platforms, Barhydt is persistent at this and claims regulation will encourage institutional investors. He said,
"We're getting closer and closer to real clarity in the West that it's OK putting half a percent of your assets into crypto."
He added that the market would bloom again once big investment firms bring in even a tiny percent of the money as it would be worth millions of dollars.