Blockchain Week New York City aka Consensus 2018 was highly anticipated within the cryptocurrency ecosystem with many analysts expecting the event to trigger a new bullish momentum for Bitcoin and altcoins. The market, however, managed to lose $52 billion during the week of the conference.
Consensus 2018 Turned Out to be a Dud for Bitcoin Bulls
Prior to Consensus 2018, Fundstrat Global Advisors’ technician Robert Sluymer said Bitcoin had bottomed and the upside was days way. At the time, he was of the opinion that the digital currency is in a stage of general recovery and that the Blockchain Week will be the next big catalyst for Bitcoin.
Fundstrat’s analysts had observed rallies following past Consensus events and there was no reason not to expect the same pattern. Fundstrat’s CEO Tom Lee predicted Bitcoin to push back over $15,000 and hit close to its all-time highs again. This, however, clearly didn’t happen. Not yet, at least.
The cryptocurrency market lost $52 billion in market capitalization during the Blockchain Week. Bitcoin is now priced at $8,360, having touched the $8,000 line on May 18. That milestone price is holding the bears for now, as investors try to figure out what went wrong.
For starters, the hot topic at Consensus 2018 was regulation. Lack of fresh perspective among experts didn’t provide much enthusiasm for the community gathering in Manhattan. Additionally, there was a lot of focus on the failings of the industry and not enough attention on problem-solving, especially regarding fundamental problems such as scalability and centralization.
Will the Cryptocurrency Market Recover?
Yes, cryptocurrency investors are required to accept the possibility, no matter how small, that the market will not recover from here. Chances are that it will, though. Blockchain Week NYC was probably an unexpected speed bump. Not only it did not trigger the bullish momentum, but it has also frustrated mounting expectations from enthusiasts.
So, instead of having the market adding gains from Consensus 2018 onwards, it will probably be triggered by some other event. In fact, the digital currency market doesn’t need a specific event to recover its upside. Technically, analyst Aayush Jindal said ‘there is a monster bearish trend line forming with resistance at $8,300 on the 4-hours chart of the BTC/USD pair.’ Bitcoin might only need to break that area to continue the long-term bullish run.
While some Barclays analysts did predict Bitcoin will continue on the ‘downward spiral’, former Skype COO said the recent price stagnation of Bitcoin ‘will appear trivial’ by the end of the year. Fundstrat’s Tom Lee predicts Bitcoin will reach $25,000 in 2018 and $125,000 by 2022, and Tim Draper, an early backer of Tesla, Skype, and SpaceX, is confident that bitcoin will reach $250,000 by 2022.
