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Bitcoin Moves Closer to a Safe-haven Asset in 2017?

top 14 digital currencies

In the first quarter of 2017, the total market of cryptocurrencies added nearly$7 billion in value.

As the chart shows, top 14 most valuable currencies based on market cap saw dramatic price gains but Litecoin. (Litecoin price dropped by 6.9% in the first three months of 2017, but it rises as Segwit heads for activation.)

At first glance, Bitcoin’s performance during Q1 2017 was more muted with an increase of 10%.  But a silver lining behind this is that Bitcoin has become more mature.

There is evidence that bitcoin has become a more mature asset class over time in that its volatility has been decreasing, which helps bitcoin move closer to be a safe-haven asset.

bitcoin price

Bitcoin optimists believe that 2017 will mark a turning point for Bitcoin to be recognized as a safe-haven asset. For the one hand, Bitcoin has gained more popularity around the world.  If you search for “Bitcoin” on Google, you will realize that bitcoin searches are rising in 2017 in many countries around the world and bitcoin users have doubled every month since 2013.

bitcoin users

For the other hand, 2017 also witnesses more enterprises, central banks and governments of all levels are tapping into the potential usage of Bitcoin and its backbone technology Blockchain. Plus, countries like Japan and Philippines have officially made Bitcoin a legal method of payment in 2017. And it’s reported that Russia and India are also working to legitimize Bitcoin as payment method. On April 12, the Indian government set up an Inter-Disciplinary Committee to study cryptocurrencies. And a report from CNBC India on April 20 reveals that the Indian government is leaning toward granting legality to Bitcoin and virtual currencies in the country amid regulations with taxes to be levied on adopters.

We could expect that strict regulations will be applied to Bitcoin, and thus help make it a legal payment method, even a mainstream currency.

COMMENTS(27)

  • Qartada
    6 years ago Qartada

    No, Bitcoin has had several periods of relative stability before but it’s always been the calm before the storm.  The most stable period was in 2016, and Bitcoin has been flying crazily around for most of this year so far.To achieve stability, Bitcoin would have to have a much higher price and liquidity.  On exchanges, it takes very little to shift the price one way or another, which results in wild swings and pump and dumps.  While these are less extreme than they used to be for now, they’re still equally possible and will happen again in the future.Ironically, some people avoid putting money into Bitcoin because of its volatility, but putting more money in would stop it.  Bitcoin isn’t inherently unstable.

  • Pettuh4
    6 years ago Pettuh4

    I believe it’s a good and it shows Bitcoin is maturing like you put it . Stability was one of the major cons of Bitcoin but over a couple of weeks it’s been relatively stable and on a sturdy ascendency so I’d say it’s good news and hopefully the second quarter of the year will end with similar improved statistics.

  • DoctorG
    6 years ago DoctorG

    Its those damned exchanges that discredit Bitcoin the majority of the time.It doesnt matter what the ‘people’ do with Bitcoin, raise money for charity, set up casino’s, the French trailed Bitcoin payment on public transport…etcThe exchanges are guilty of discrediting Bitcoin 90% of the time. Until they become more mature, Bitcoin will be in limbo between ground breaking virtual currency of the future and a scam – hated by banks, politicians and pillars of the community.Some of you will harshly criticise my comments, after all its the banks that are causing problems for Bitcoin more recently (now) by making it harder to pair fiat currency with the exchanges and allow deposits. Is this fueled by the Chinese government, or general distrust, we will never know.Feel free to criticise me, Ive taken a lot off this forum over the years, but when I see the Bitcoin price fall, its usually because of some exchange somewhere getting hacked or holding coins.Its never because Joe or Dave McBitcoin ran off with a few dollars of someone else’s money. Hell that happens every day in the real world.Its going to take a long time to build the trust needed in Bitcoin to push it into the realms of maturity.Its getting there though.

  • Amph
    6 years ago Amph

    you can’t compare the growth of an altcoin which have a lower marketcap with bitcoin, altcoin are more prone to 5x 10x oincrease, also the increase of these two alt you mentioned was due to bitcoin price decrease, therefore this point is mooti don’t think either that bitcoin is mature, this value is nothign special, to have maturity you ned greater stability and to have stability, you like it or not you need greater value

  • traderethereum
    6 years ago traderethereum

    Quote from: Doofus on April 24, 2017, 05:58:19 AM
    In the first quarter of 2017, bitcoin price only increased 10%, while ETH 600% and DASH 846%. And i noticed that btc price is like going steady in the past few weeks. Is this good or bad? Does this mean it is growing into a mature investment?

    i think its good because no matter how much bitcoin price is increase, the altcoin will increase too while in this condition bitcoin is down. if bitcoin is steady, altcoin is increase a little. i think its the bitcoin growing is a good investment, we see that bitcoin is still the best investment for us and although the price is too high now but i think there is still many people that want to buy bitcoin.

  • densuj
    6 years ago densuj

    Quote from: Doofus on April 24, 2017, 05:58:19 AM
    In the first quarter of 2017, bitcoin price only increased 10%, while ETH 600% and DASH 846%. And i noticed that btc price is like going steady in the past few weeks. Is this good or bad? Does this mean it is growing into a mature investment?
    Well of course bitcoin price is steady is good than high fluctuation because it will takes the new investors in bitcointhe investors will not be scary because of high fluctuation of bitcoin and losing their whealty,bitcoin will become more good if the increasing of price every years more than inflation, it is mean bitcoin can protect our values of whealty than put the whealty in fiat money.

  • franky1
    6 years ago franky1

    Quote from: Amph on April 24, 2017, 07:06:54 AM
    you can’t compare the growth of an altcoin which have a lower marketcap with bitcoin, altcoin are more prone to 5x 10x oincrease, also the increase of these two alt you mentioned was due to bitcoin price decrease, therefore this point is mooti don’t think either that bitcoin is mature, this value is nothign special, to have maturity you ned greater stability and to have stability, you like it or not you need greater value

    also you cant compare any coin based on market cap..market cap is a bubble number. we all know how easy it is to move a price.. and multiplying that easily movable price by the amount of coins in circulation becomes manipulatable to the  XXXXXXXXXXXXX multiple.EG i can make an alt with 5trillion coins, and just put 1 coin in an exchange and sell it to myself for $1, to set a coin price to $1now the market cap is $5trillion

  • Doofus
    6 years ago Doofus

    some bitcoin enthusiasts believe that 2017 will mark a turning point for bitcoin moving closer to a safe-haven asset. They claim central banks, enterprises and countries are all tapping into the potential of Bitcoin. So maybe the bitcoin price is not performing well right now, but it is still a good thing. You can get more details, including google data here. http://news.8btc.com/bitcoin-moves-closer-to-a-safe-haven-asset-in-2017

  • ETFbitcoin
    6 years ago ETFbitcoin

    Compare bitcoin with altcoins aren’t good comparison since most of those altcoins price raising because hype and not because have real support by community. They’re better as short/medium investment.Also, i think bitcoin still have lots of potential and the price could rise a lot if SegWit/BU drama is over and one of them is gain majority support from miners/community.

  • Dimelord
    6 years ago Dimelord

    Quote from: Doofus on April 24, 2017, 05:58:19 AM
    In the first quarter of 2017, bitcoin price only increased 10%, while ETH 600% and DASH 846%. And i noticed that btc price is like going steady in the past few weeks. Is this good or bad? Does this mean it is growing into a mature investment?
    Yes bitcoin price seems to be steady.ETH and DASH price rise cannot be compared with bitcoin.They are mostly pumped and dumped.In earlier times,bitcoin price seemed to be fluctuating because the chinese and big whales tried to manipulate bitcoin price by dumping their bitcoins.But now there is huge demand for bitcoins all over the world and if they now try to dump,they would be losing all of their coins and hence no decrease in the price.Yes nowadays bitcoin is turning to be a mature investment.

  • Hazir
    6 years ago Hazir

    Quote from: Doofus on April 24, 2017, 05:58:19 AM
    In the first quarter of 2017, bitcoin price only increased 10%,
    It is true that bitcoin volatility index is lower than ever, in latest 30-day period estimate volatility of BTC was only 2.12%.Quote from: Doofus on April 24, 2017, 05:58:19 AM
    while ETH 600% and DASH 846%.
    It is hard to compare altcoin with significantly lower marketcap (even though marketcap is not exactly the best benchmark) to Bitcoin.Because of lower price per token ETH and DASH can be manipulated even easier than BTC.Quote from: Doofus on April 24, 2017, 05:58:19 AM
    And i noticed that btc price is like going steady in the past few weeks. Is this good or bad? Does this mean it is growing into a mature investment?
    No. IMO market is only keeping status quo. People are waiting what will gonna happen next with scaling and how things will pan out.We also have problem with exchanges, paradoxically it made price goes up, not down, because people are scared to use exchanges.

  • hajimasan
    6 years ago hajimasan

    Quote from: Doofus on April 24, 2017, 05:58:19 AM
    In the first quarter of 2017, bitcoin price only increased 10%, while ETH 600% and DASH 846%. And i noticed that btc price is like going steady in the past few weeks. Is this good or bad? Does this mean it is growing into a mature investment?
    No doubt that bitcoin is the king .Since the ETH , DASH and also other altcoins that have really a better base for the basic value similar to the bitcoin .But here you are also somewhat right , Because it was also a time in the history when value of one bitcoin was less then one doller , But now it is about 1300% times more then what what is in the past .Here the most profitable way for the earning is only​ to make trading in the altcoins , so usually most of the millionaire bought altcoins through his bitcoin .And also why not to do trading , trading is really a profitable thing but we should don’t forget that without bitcoin we can’t make trading easily .And also most of the altcoins are only depends upon the network of the bitcoin , so without bitcoin altcoins are nothing .

  • CuriousGeorge
    6 years ago CuriousGeorge

    i think the market cap is now bigger and it’s hard for someone to pump or dump with their bitcoin even if they’re rich, unlike few years ago

  • Weatherby
    6 years ago Weatherby

    Quote from: Doofus on April 24, 2017, 05:58:19 AM
    In the first quarter of 2017, bitcoin price only increased 10%, while ETH 600% and DASH 846%. And i noticed that btc price is like going steady in the past few weeks. Is this good or bad? Does this mean it is growing into a mature investment?
    There has being a good rally in the alt coin market and not only did ETH and DASH had a good rally almost all of the top coins did have a good rally and bitcoin on the other hand started its rally by December and was having its bull run until recently, but one thing you have to understand is that market capitalization as there is a huge difference,we are not seeing much volatility in bitcoin is simply because of the volume we have now.

  • NorrisK
    6 years ago NorrisK

    Bitcoin is not stable at all at this point. Price still fluctuate wildly. The fact that altcoins makes bigger swings does not mean bitcoin has become stable.

  • Yuuto
    6 years ago Yuuto

    Quote from: ETFbitcoin on April 24, 2017, 09:38:54 AM
    Compare bitcoin with altcoins aren’t good comparison since most of those altcoins price raising because hype and not because have real support by community. They’re better as short/medium investment.Also, i think bitcoin still have lots of potential and the price could rise a lot if SegWit/BU drama is over and one of them is gain majority support from miners/community.
    That is a good point, nobody should ever compare bitcoin to other cryptocurrencies, especially the cheap altcoins because there is no real demand on them, supply is always available, but not so many people are interested about it, and the technology that is behind them is not really revolutionary more than a blockchain technology.Instead of real customer demand, we can see usually pump & dump game being played by rich investors, they manipulate those markets for their own gains.It is very hard to manipulate BTC because the market capitalization is really huge, so imagine how big would have to be the amount of funds, that may have big influence on market.

  • pearlmen
    6 years ago pearlmen

    Quote from: Doofus on April 24, 2017, 05:58:19 AM
    In the first quarter of 2017, bitcoin price only increased 10%, while ETH 600% and DASH 846%. And i noticed that btc price is like going steady in the past few weeks. Is this good or bad? Does this mean it is growing into a mature investment?

    Its a good thing for those who have bought as much as possible when the last crash happened at the same time for someone who bought last week with the premonition that price should have increased significantly will definitely not be happy about the situation of things. All the same, I think the stability is an evidence that entrants into bitcoin are equally stabilizing.

  • ivanpoldark
    6 years ago ivanpoldark

    For me bitcoin always will be the islet of stability. But i started to afraid because of Etherium and other more safe services. Nobody knows what blockchain coins will be considered valuable by society in future. Bitcoin becomes more mature? Of course. But chances that bitcoin could rapidly increase or decrease in value still remains.

  • 8BTCnews
    6 years ago 8BTCnews

    #Bitcoin Moves Closer to a Safe-haven Asset in 2017? | http://NEWS.8BTC.COM  http://news.8btc.com/bitcoin-moves-closer-to-a-safe-haven-asset-in-2017 …

  • BitcoinAllBot
    6 years ago BitcoinAllBot

    Here is the link to the original comment thread. Or you can comment here to start a discussion. Author: 8btccom

  • Baofeng
    6 years ago Baofeng

    Quote from: Doofus on April 24, 2017, 05:58:19 AM
    In the first quarter of 2017, bitcoin price only increased 10%, while ETH 600% and DASH 846%. And i noticed that btc price is like going steady in the past few weeks. Is this good or bad? Does this mean it is growing into a mature investment?

    The price is going steady because some exchanges like Bitfinex hold the USD withdrawal of its investors so naturally they convert their USD to bitcoin that why the price started to increase. But once the withdrawal is open again, the price of bitcoin will go down. But in terms of being mature, no bitcoin will not mature and will remain unstable and volatile.

  • Przemax
    6 years ago Przemax

    Im wondering if price stability mostly have to do with bitcoin having the higher price than ever before.  For one  its harder to inflate already inflated price. Secondly people that are heavily invested into bitcoin emotionaly and financialy are not going to give up on their investment and they will defend the price to the last.

  • paul gatt
    6 years ago paul gatt

    Quote from: Doofus on April 24, 2017, 05:58:19 AM
    In the first quarter of 2017, bitcoin price only increased 10%, while ETH 600% and DASH 846%. And i noticed that btc price is like going steady in the past few weeks. Is this good or bad? Does this mean it is growing into a mature investment?

    I think this stability is only temporary. With the current market fluctuations, I believe its value will increase rapidly in the near future, bitcoin is still popular. So, wait for the good news from it.

  • aribolab
    6 years ago aribolab

    ‘Pump’ news

  • Yakamoto
    6 years ago Yakamoto

    I wouldn’t say that Bitcoin is getting more mature in the market, it’s just there is less money that is used to pump or dump the value and most whales don’t seem to be interested in throwing the value on way or another. Which might be a good thing, but there is no guarantee as to if we’re going to see it kept this way. I hope we can, but knowing the market it’s likely just a lull in the activity.

  • Doofus
    6 years ago Doofus

    In the first quarter of 2017, bitcoin price only increased 10%, while ETH 600% and DASH 846%. And i noticed that btc price is like going steady in the past few weeks. Is this good or bad? Does this mean it is growing into a mature investment? google also shows the bitcoin users have doubled every month since 2013. http://news.8btc.com/bitcoin-moves-closer-to-a-safe-haven-asset-in-2017

  • franky1
    6 years ago franky1

    bitcoin prices are not stable. from my view its the lack of spending on exchanges due to lack of trust of exchangeswe are no longer in the days where people are spending $10k per orderlinenote above is bitfinex which is having some fiat issues hence the  price being $100 higher than other exchangesbut here are some other exchanges showing recent (only a few minutes old at time of posting) under $500 to move the bitcoin price up or down by $1-$3

  • Pamoldar
    6 years ago Pamoldar

    i would say it has matured and nolonger having those massive flatucations that cause most of us to panic and sell our holdingswhich is good for users looking for an easy store of value asset… btc can be used

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