- Finder's recent price prediction report shows that a panel of specialists has predicted Bitcoin to rise and peak at $93,700 this year.
- However, the Fed's plan to hike interest rates would affect this price, causing it to fall to $76,400 as the year ends.
According to a Bitcoin price prediction report by Finder, a panel of experts in areas including NFTs, FinTech and crypto has issued its predictions on where the price of Bitcoin is headed in the future.
The panel, which included 33 specialists, is foreseeing that the world's largest digital asset would peak at around $93,700 before plunging to $76,400 as the year comes to an end. In addition, the panel forecasted that in the year 2025, Bitcoin would be worth at least $192,800, and five years later, its value should be approaching a massive $406,400.
The influence of Fed's interest decision
Unlike a similar survey held back in October, where the participants were more optimistic, the panel members found that the Federal Reserve's plan to hike interest rates within the first quarter of the year will affect cryptocurrencies. Half of the panelists feel that a rise in interest rates would concurrently tank Bitcoin's price.
"[The] first half of 2022 will be dominated by concerns over higher interest rates, which will impact all risk assets including Bitcoin. We wouldn't be surprised to see Bitcoin decline a further 30% from current levels," explained the Panxora Group CEO, Gavin Smith.
However, Smith notes that should Bitcoin's price drop, the plunge will only be temporary. In fact, he expects that Bitcoin could recollect and rally to new highs towards the end of the year.
"As inflation continues to rise, we expect Bitcoin to decouple from other risk assets in the second half of 2022 leading to a rally to new highs towards the end of the year," he added.
Bearish-much? No
The panel members also established that Bitcoin is the asset most likely to perform best in an extended bear market – 45% of them pinpointed it. University of Brighton senior lecturer Paul Levy explained Bitcoin qualifies as the asset to thrive as it's an already established crypto asset.
Ethereum was the second choice, with 15% of the panel members touting it to perform best in case of a prolonged crypto plunge. CoinFlip founder Daniel Polotsky explained that Ethereum was the least speculative market and that these kinds of markets usually stand out in bearish conditions.
"Ethereum has the most developers, the most usability and nearly ten times as much total value locked on its blockchain as its closest competitor. The project is battle-tested and is ready for a bear market, unlike other less-proven coins," he argued.
Polkadot (DOT) and USDC were the next two coins predicted to prosper in the prolonged bear market.