Bitcoin has gained over 140% in the past 12 months
The CEO of blockchain startup Ripple sees the combined market capitalisation of the crypto currency market topping $5 trillion this year.
Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse told CNBC that he expects the entire value of the crypto market to double, citing macro factors including the arrival of the first U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs, as well as the upcoming so-called bitcoin “halving.”
I have been around this industry for a long time, and I have seen these trends come and go, he told CNBC. I am very optimistic. I think the macro trends, the big picture things like the ETFs, they are driving for the first time real institutional money.
You are seeing that drives demand, and at the same time demand is rising, supply is decreasing, he added. That does not take an economics major to tell you what happens when supply contracts and demand grows.
The first U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds were approved on January 10 by the U.S. SEC. They trade on U.S. stock exchanges and allow institutions and retail investors to gain exposure to bitcoin without directly owning the underlying asset.
The bitcoin halving is a technical event that takes place roughly every four years in bitcoin’s history. It halves the total mining reward to bitcoin miners, which are volunteers on the bitcoin network that use high-powered computers to verify transactions and mint new tokens.
The last such event took place in 2020, and the next one is scheduled to happen later this month.
He added that the overall market capitalisation of the crypto industry is easily forecasted to double by the end of this year as it is impacted by all of these macro factors.
The total crypto market cap was nearly $2.6 trillion as of April 4. If the market were to double, that would imply a new total crypto market capitalisation of $5.2 trillion.
Bitcoin has gained over 140% in the past 12 months.
It reached a record high above $73,000 on March 13, per CoinGecko data. It has since dropped well below the $70,000 level, however.
The world’s largest digital currency has been the main token driving gains for the wider market.
Bitcoin accounts for around 49% of the entire crypto market, with a market cap of $1.3 trillion as of April 1.