\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a little more volatility,\u201d Chris Gaffney, president of world markets at TIAA Bank, said in an interview. \u201cIt\u2019s a speculative asset.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bitcoin started 2021 with a bang, quickly notching new highs as more investors — especially big-name Wall Street institutions — became interested in it as a speculative asset or as a hedge against rising prices.<\/p>\n
Other positive developments, including the launch of the first U.S. exchange-traded fund tracking Bitcoin futures, also helped propel it higher over the year.<\/p>\n
Globally, more than $20 billion was invested in crypto exchange-traded products through November, a record, according to ETFGI, a research and consultancy firm.<\/p>\n
Assets increased roughly 550% year to date, up from $3.1 billion at the end of last year, the firm said in a report.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat lifted Bitcoin above $20,000 was this excitement factor that, \u2018Oh my God, it\u2019s not just a bunch of kids. It\u2019s real. Institutions are going to make strategic allocations in Bitcoin because it\u2019s a limited supply, it\u2019s only going to go higher,\u2019\u201d said Michael Purves, chief executive and founder of Tallbacken Capital Advisors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next stage of this sort of awkward adolescence of Bitcoin is going to require something more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bitcoin has had a rough time since hitting an all-time high of near $69,000 in early November. Partly, analysts say, it\u2019s being buffeted by concerns over greater regulatory scrutiny around the world.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s also losing dominance to other lesser-known upstarts that have gained in popularity as the crypto ecosystem expanded this year. Among the biggest cryptocurrencies, Binance Coin\u00a0posted<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0the best return, adding roughly 1,300% in 2021.<\/p>\n Matt Maley, chief market strategist for Miller Tabak + Co., says Bitcoin\u2019s year-end volatility might be a result of investors jettisoning non-winning trades.<\/p>\n \u201cInstitutional investors like to pump up their large holdings at the end of the year and scale back (or in some cases, dump) their losers,\u201d he wrote in a note this week.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, guess what? A lot of institutional players were late to the game on Bitcoin and other cryptos this year.\u201d<\/p>\n Bitcoin\u2019s gains for the year remain impressive, and it isn\u2019t faring as poorly as it has during past drawdowns. Its 30% drop from its high is not as drastic as other swoons it\u2019s experienced.<\/p>\n The average decline from a record sits at around 46%, according Bespoke Investment Group. Bitcoin\u2019s mid-year pullback was even worse, with the coin down more than 50% at its low.<\/p>\n Looking ahead, many investors — in classic \u201ccrypto-to-the-moon\u201d fashion — are expecting prices to recover and eventually reach new highs. The wild swings in the market suggest it could go either way.<\/p>\n \u201cWe expect Bitcoin to continue to perform well. Tailwinds include sustained inflation and broader investor adoption from continued education as well as the broader macro environment,\u201d wrote Martin Gaspar and Katherine Webb at CrossTower Research.<\/p>\n \u201cInvestors are increasingly understanding the unique value-add of Bitcoin. As long as it continues humming, we believe the price will follow.\u201d<\/p>\n Bitcoin ended a banner year with a rocky finish. The largest cryptocurrency by market value closed out December with a 19% drop, its largest monthly loss since May. That was also its worst December since 2013. And its 60% advance in 2021 marked its smallest gain for an up year since 2015, when it climbed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":394737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44696],"tags":[187,191],"class_list":["post-428596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-bitcoin","tag-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":428600,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428596\/revisions\/428600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Bitcoin-price.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nNow read: South African Bitcoin Brothers\u2019 investors accept R80 million payoff<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"