On Thursday, the US president came out to speak his mind about cryptocurrencies. In a series of tweets published on the night of July 11, Donald Trump criticized cryptocurrencies specifically Bitcoin and Facebook’s upcoming coin – Libra. Trump went on to demand that companies should seek a banking charter and present themselves as subject to both the US and global regulations if they want to “become a bank”.
While it’s not yet clear what triggered these comments or the intended outcome, some in the crypto community already feel that the revived attention on the digital currencies could carry Bitcoin to new 2019 highs.
Added Attention On Cryptocurrencies
Tom Lee, Fundstrat’s head of research, shrugged off Trump’s remarks while speaking in an interview on Yahoo Finance’s YFi PM Friday. Lee pointed out that Trump’s comments as well as the congress and the Fed all weighing in on the matter shows that the digital currencies and Bitcoin are in the main stage now.
Trumps’s comments came only a day after Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman, told lawmakers that Facebook’s Libra Project should not move forward unless the social media giant addresses concerns over consumer protection, privacy, financial stability and money laundering. Also, Powell has mentioned both Bitcoin and Facebook’s crypto endeavors various times this week during his congressional testimony. Lee added that all this attention will force the 98% of the world that still don’t actually care about crypto and Bitcoin to start thinking about what it means.
Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO, also saw the added attention on cryptocurrencies. The CEO cheered the president’s tweets with his own tweet calling it an “achievement unlocked” stating that he “dreamt about a sitting president of the U.S. needing to respond to growing crypto usage years ago.”
Predicting Bitcoin’s Price Surge
The new focus on crypto builds on weeks of added attention especially to Bitcoin following Facebook unveiling its own cryptocurrency Libra. Lee predicts that the combined momentum could lead to FOMO especially among investors which could contribute to new Bitcoin’s price highs of somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000 before the year ends.
“Bitcoin is now trading at a level that it’s only seen 3% of its historical days. If you go back to every milestone that that was achieved, Bitcoin subsequently rallied somewhere between 200% to 400% within the next four months, so I think if that’s playing out this time that means Bitcoin could be $20,000 to $40,000 sometime in the fourth quarter.” he said.
Libra Not A Necessity For Bitcoin To Reach New Highs
Lee goes on to say that for Bitcoin to reach the highs he predicts, it has to surpass the proven 2019 resistance level of $13,400. Surpassing the resistance level could signal the eventual rally of Lee’s year-end prediction.
While Lee acknowledges that Facebook’s Libra could provide a strong access to get more people to trust digital currencies, he doesn’t think that it would change the long-term outlook for Bitcoin and crypto would still succeed in a world without Libra.