Bitcoin is about to undergo a split, but could it potentially reach $7,000 before the upcoming hard fork in November?
At the time of publishing, Bitcoin is trading above $6,200, according to CoinMarketCap. Yet, the so-called hard fork planned for next month has the potential to create two different blockchains, each with its own set of coins. On or around the 16th November, Bitcoin will undergo its contentious upgrade based on the SegWit2x code on block 494784. With it will see the end of an ongoing battle to see how to increase the number of transactions processed on the blockchain per second.
Between now and then a lot can happen. One of which is the possibility that bitcoin’s value will rise to new historic heights of $7,000. Given the trajectory the community has experienced in recent months, it certainly seems that bitcoin could reach that milestone.
Since the beginning of 2017, bitcoin has seen its value rise from $1,000 in January to over $6,000 10 months later. Its market cap has increased from a mere $16.5 billion to an impressive $103 billion during that time. However, while each rise has seen a drop in value too, the declines appear to be less drastic with each new climb, suggesting that bitcoin has finally reached a state of maturity as it retains investor confidence.
In August, the value of bitcoin steadily increased to $4,500 for the first time in its history, sparking a new wave of interest among investors. Despite a crackdown by Chinese authorities to stop mainland trading of bitcoin, which saw prices dip below $3,000 on the 15th September, the market rallied back. So much so, that it rose back to $4,000 before recording $5,000 figures earlier this month. Even though the currency’s price has ebbed it has continued its steady climb to its present value of $6,222.
Many fear, however, that in the short-term the currency will drop in value before increasing over the long-term. Several factors that have slightly impacted its price are several coin-splits with the currency. In August, the community witnessed the creation of Bitcoin Cash. This was recently joined by the addition of Bitcoin Gold. While they both have had an impact on the value of bitcoin it hasn’t been anything to cause too much disruption. As such, many believe that it will remain the dominant currency.
Does this then mean that before the upcoming hard fork bitcoin will reach $7,000? According to Steve Wozniak, Apple’s co-founder, he believes that bitcoin has a better value than gold and the U.S. dollar. Speaking earlier this month at the Money 20/20 event in Las Vegas, he said that this is due to the fact that the digital currency has a finite supply of 21 million coins.
In a report from Futurism, he said:
“There is a certain finite amount of bitcoin that can ever exist. Gold gets mined and mined and mined. Maybe there’s a finite amount of gold in the world, but cryptocurrency is even more mathematical and regulated and nobody can change mathematics.”
