Cryptocurrency Predictions For 2020: What Should We Expect?

2019 was a year full of surprises and expectations for blockchain and crypto projects. New partnerships have been established, new cryptocurrency products launched, and Bitcoin and Ethereum managed to make it out alive of the bear market, as well as many blockchain developments were made.

Today, we shall explore some of the cryptocurrency predictions for 2020 and look into the events and price evolutions we should expect this year.

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Prediction 2020

Bitcoin will experience a big event in May 2020, as the coin will go through its third block reward halving. Traders and analysists believe that Bitcoin will go past the all-time high of $20,000 in early 2020, due to a rally spurred by the upcoming halving. There are also investors that predict a slow rebound for BTC the coming year, with surges to ensue post-2020.

One of the most anticipated developments for Bitcoin is the Lightning Network update.
The implementation will bring more stability to the network, which will produce more demands and growth.

2020 will bring a new wave of applications, nodes, and channels, which will be based on the Lightning network. This will lead to an intense Bitcoin development ecosystem, with projects such as RSK and Exonum already using the Bitcoin network as a base.

The market was looking forward to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) decision regarding the several Bitcoin ETF proposals.

Considering that all BTC ETFs have been rejected and that Brad Sherman, an anti-crypto proponent, was appointed as chair of the Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets (which practically oversees the SEC), there will be no Bitcoin ETF in our cryptocurrency predictions for 2020.

Ethereum (ETH) Price Prediction 2020

Ethereum has occupied second place after Bitcoin for a long time and is still the top altcoin in the crypto space. Also, Ethereum was initially known as the fastest network that can manage huge traffic, but as the blockchain saw more and more projects building on top of its structure, this has an impact on the speed and functionality of the main network.

2020 is waiting for Ethereum to go through several major updates, such as Constantinople and Casper, the latter of which will shift Ethereum’s mining algorithm for Proof of Work to Proof of Stake. The team has made substantial progress on the new Ethereum 2.0 blockchain, and the market is highly optimistic that in 2020, they will achieve most of their roadmap.

These changes may positively impact the price of ETH, as most traders hope the token will get back to trading within $1,000 trading levels, with some even speculating that ETH will reach $11,000. At this point, this type of comeback is highly optimistic, but an appreciation of a few hundreds of dollars is possible for 2020.

Ripple (XRP) Price Prediction 2020

XRP, the native cryptocurrency of the Ripple ledger has made great improvements in 2018, as it managed to place itself among the top three coins in the space, and even dethroning Ethereum for a while. However, like the rest of the crypto market, this year it seems that XRP is going through a bearish period towards the end of the year, which we do not know how it will translate into the next year.

Due to its many high-profile partnerships, XRP has received a lot of media attention, which naturally jacked up its price, which makes many traders to believe that XRP can grow by 1000 percent in 2020. According to other analysts, the price will go over $10 in 2020.

So far, Ripple has been very stable in price compared to other coins, so we are unsure how and if these optimistic cryptocurrency predictions will happen in 2020.

Blockchain and Crypto Trends for 2020

Libra Launch

In early 2020, Facebook intends to launch its own cryptocurrency, Libra, which was designed to enable users to make digital payments in a dozen countries.

The platform is planned to also allow users to convert their dollars and other fiat currencies into digital coins, and these coins can be further used to purchase items or services online. But since Facebook’s payment network initiative was introduced to the public, it has been met with strong resistance from regulatory bodies from both the U.S. and European countries. After the regulatory backlash, the project has been keeping its development away from media attention.

Their GitHub repository shows frequent development commits and activities. In 2020 is expected that Libra will launch in one jurisdiction, but the coin will have very limited usage, partners, and functionality.

Increased Adoption for Stablecoins

In the past years, we have seen many platforms, projects, and exchanges tokenizing fiat currencies and using them as a stable means of transferring funds.

The next year it is expected that stablecoins, mostly fiat-backed, will enter the market, and adoption for them will take off. Projects, including Fnality and J.P. Morgan are to launch their own stablecoin.

The Decentralized Finance Space Will See More Growth

There are nearly $290 million stored on various apps and platforms operating in the DeFi ecosystem.

Due to the popularity of Maker DAO and Dai stablecoin and various other projects of this nature, there has been an increase in the number of decentralized exchanges, prediction markets, and lending/borrowing platforms. We believe that this open finance trend with cryptos and blockchain platforms will continue to evolve in 2020 as well.

Conclusion

Bitcoin has been relatively stable in the past few months, so our cryptocurrency predictions for 2020 will not include major price swings and crashes. Even if the market will always fluctuate, we believe that 2020 will not be characterized by the huge surges we saw in 2017 and 2018.

If prices are to see a significant change over the course of 2020, it will probably happen at a slow pace and not like with previous surges. This year, we noticed that many projects have been focused on developing their technologies and applications, especially Ethereum, which is poised to make huge changes in its internal structure.

Of course, keep in mind that predictions are just predictions, and anything can happen over the course of the year, so please take into account that there is a possibility of prices to go in a different direction than what analysts are predicting.

Featured image: San Francisco Tribe