2 Reasons Why Retail Investors Should Buy Bitcoin Now
BITCOIN (BTC) is the most speculated currency on the crypto market at the moment. With the popular coin smashing an all-time highs(ATH) and barrelling past the $20,000 psychological mark, anticipation is high in the cryptoverse.
Crypto bulls are already predicting a new all-time records for their favorite coin, but a lot of investors are still skeptical about putting their bucks on bitcoin, mainly because the growth is eerily similar to the 2017 spike, and investors fear that the bubble that happened right after may repeat itself.
With this new ATH, it is hard to dispel the sentimental FOMO that comes with buying bitcoin at times like these.
However, here are three strong reasons why, for retail investors, there’s no better time to stack those sats than now.
- More Institutions Holding The Bullish Reins
Bitcoin’s 2017 breakthrough was driven mainly by retail investors, as it was a relatively new coin then and the structures put in place could only support private profit and risk bearing.
Fast forward to now, the narrative is entirely different. According to Google Trends, private investors are second citizens at the bitcoin party. More institutional investors are placing heavy bucks on BTC, and that’s because government regulations have swayed in favor of institutional investment in cryptocurrency. Recently, institutional demand for bitcoin has soared. As of June 17, 2019 open interest at CME Group saw 5,311 contracts totalling 26,555 BTC, or approximately $246 million — dwarfing the volumes during the 2017 price peak.
Also, cryptocurrency exchanges are not only catering for individual entities, but are implementing solid custodial services that are mitigating the risks that come with crypto volatility for institutional investors, and encouraging the influx of institutions into the cryptosphere. U.S based crypto-exchange platform and wallet provider, Coinbase, launched its Custody last year, and this year announced that it already holds $1.3 billion assets under custody (AUC).
2. Improved Hash Rates
BTC network fundamentals are, at the moment, better than they have ever been. According to data from data monitoring resource Blockchain.co, hash rate hit a new all-time high at over 65,000,000 TH/s last week. For those that don’t speak crypto, this means the BTC network is more secure than ever and it would take immense computing effort to disrupt the network.
Other metrics are also looking solid — daily on-chain transaction volume, block size are also confirming that more people than ever are using bitcoin.
As an added factor, Bitcoin transaction fees are relatively low compared to 2017, with intégrations like SegWit and off-chain scaling solutions like the Lightning network helping to reduce traffic on the network and providing easier exchange solutions.
Overall, it cannot be said that bitcoin is now a low-risk asset because of all these indications. However, it is holding a lot of promise, especially with the heightened awareness and wider reach of cryptocurrency than ever. My advice? Buy yourself some bitcoin and hold on dear life (hodl), you’ll thank yourself in the nearest future
