Binance CEO Predicts A Bitcoin And Crypto 'Bull Run'

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency holders have been waiting all year for the next bull run, hoping the bitcoin price will return to (and even exceed) the near $20,000 price per coin it reached late last year.

However, the bitcoin price has been stuck in a downward trend all year—dragging the wider cryptocurrency market with it. The bitcoin price is down some 70% from its peak while the likes of other major cryptocurrencies ripple (XRP) and ethereum are down around 80%.

Now, the respected chief executive of bitcoin exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao, has said he expects another bitcoin “bull run” to happen “sooner or later”, telling CNBC’s Crypto Trader program: “Even if I don’t know what will catalyze a bitcoin bull run, I am certain it will happen… Sooner or later, something will trigger it.”

The bitcoin price has been falling this year, but bitcoin bulls remain hopeful there will be a price surge soon. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)Getty

Changpeng Zhao, often known by his initials CZ, said that while bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading on Binance, the world’s largest exchange by volume, is down almost 90% from January he still feels the company and the wider market are healthy. 

“Compared to January [of 2018], we are probably down 90 percent. So we only have one-tenth of the trading volume compared to what we had in January. But, compared to like a year or two years ago, we’re still trading at huge volumes. Business is still okay, we are still profitable, and we are still a very healthy business,” CZ said.

CZ also said Binance has seen a steady increase in the number of active users and bitcoin deposits over the course of the year.

Binance has also revealed it is opening its doors to institutional investors, laying the groundwork for capital that many in the cryptocurrency sector are hoping will soon arrive from institutional investors as well as high net individuals.

In a Medium post, Binance outlined its plans for institutional investors, writing that it expects “a larger number of institutional investors to increase their allocation into this [cryptocurrency] asset class.”

The chief executive of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance was speaking to CNBC’s Crypto Trader program.CNBC Crypto Trader

Meanwhile, the chief executive of bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift, Erik Voorhees, has said U.S. debt will be the trigger for the next bitcoin price surge.

“When the next global financial crisis occurs, and the world realizes organizations with $20 trillion in debt can’t possibly ever pay it back and thus must print it instead, and thus fiat is doomed. Watch what happens to crypto,” Voorhees tweeted last week

The bitcoin price has been falling throughout 2018 after soaring to a staggering near-$20,000 late last year.CoinDesk

Elsewhere, Bloomberg data out last week suggested technical indicators show bitcoin could be about to move higher.

The Bitcoin’s Directional Movement Index (DMI) appears to have entered a new bullish phase, according to Bloomberg analysis, while the price trends broke out of their VERA band upper limit, which is “widely considered an encouraging sign.”

source: forbes.com