Bitcoin to hit $200K in second half of 2022 – Report

Bitcoin has started rallying again in 2022. It began the year at $47,000 before falling quickly to $33,000. As of Feb 8, the coin price is now back up to $44,000 with no sign of stopping. A new report from FSInsight is now predicting the leading cryptocurrency to hit $200,000 in the second half of the year.

According to the report "Digital Assets in a Post-Cycle World" Bitcoin became increasingly correlated with equities toward the end of the Q4 last year. The price fell when faced with the prospect of central bank tightening. Sean Farrel, head of digital asset strategy at FSInsight, said the crypto market is now being more and more correlated with technology stocks because of 'legacy market capital entering the fold'.

FSInsight said that decentralised finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other Web 3 applications have driven massive growth off the Ethereum network. The report said Ether, the token tied to Ethereum, could also hit $12,000 in 2022 (it's currently at around $3000). The report noted Ethereum's transition to proof-of-stake in 2022 could result in higher capital regardless of Bitcoin performance. 

But Ethereum is also being chased by projects on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). Though Ethereum currently dominates about 18% of the crypto market total market cap, Binance Coin linked to BSC project has increased its market dominance sevenfold. Binance Coin (BNB) currently has a 4% stake in the cryptocurrency market. But it's quicker operating speeds make it the go-to blockchain for new projects like EverGrow(EGC)– one of the breakout crypto projects in 2021 and cited as challenging the top global cryptos in 2022. 

However, Bitcoin is still king. Farrel predicted that the crypto could reach $200,000 in the second half of the year, following a choppy start to 2022. Bitcoin was trading at $44,828, Ether at $3,153 and Ever Grow Coin at $0.00000080 at the time of writing.