Together with Brexit, further weakening of Chinese economy and upcoming mining reward halving, the Donald Trump’s election as the President of the US would boost the total value of bitcoin transactions.
According to a report published by Juniper Research consulting agency, the expected growth can reach $92 billion in 2016. Compared to 2015, with less than $27 billion of bitcoin transactions' total value, the figures may triple. Currently, the highest transaction volumes are concentrated on bitcoin exchanges and the cryptocurrency is now being traded at values 50% higher than in the beginning of the year.
Concerns over Trump’s victory can induce further leap of bitcoin trading price, concludes Dr Windsor Holden, the author of the study.
“If Donald Trump becomes President of the US, there is the very real prospect of turmoil on world markets – the Economist Intelligence Unit ranks his Presidency within the Top 10 global risks. However, Bitcoin trading would thrive in such an environment, at least until the impact on major fiat currencies becomes clear.”
Bitcoin remains one of very few winning assets following the results of the British EU membership referendum. The price added about $100 reaching the maximum of $679 in one night after the referendum’s preliminary figures showed that Britain is likely to leave the EU. Later, however, the correction slide began, lowering bitcoin price to $660.
Further weakening of Chinese economy was also quoted as one of the reasons for bitcoin price rise. It was the growing demand on the Chinese exchanges OkCoin, Huobi and BTC China that caused the rapid increase in bitcoin’s price at the end of May – beginning of June 2016 when the price reached a two-year maximum. With yuan growing cheaper, Chinese investors increasingly regard bitcoin as the best solution to protect their savings.
On 9 July, the mining reward is expected to reduce from 25 to 12.5 bitcoins per block. The Juniper Research paper considers this event as another factor to push bitcoin price upwards. However, experts are not unanimous on this point, indicating that bitcoin price has equal chances to either soar or plummet.
The image of Donald Trump was exploited by Genesis Mining, bitcoin cloud mining provider, to promote the use of BTC. Genesis Mining sponsored billboards across California with the slogan referring to the candidate's idea to ban money transfers to Mexico: “Your Wall Won’t Stop Bitcoin, Mr. Trump!”
Anna Lavinskaya
