Why I’m Predicting a $650 Bitcoin in 2016

Richelle Ross is an independent cryptocurrency consultant and a computer science major at the University of Florida, whose interests include programming and cryptology.
On 23rd July, I predicted on Quora that the price of bitcoin at the end of the year would rest around $420.
It appears at press time that I was not far off. As of 30th December, the bitcoin price is around $425. It seems I identified what many in the cryptocurrency community were predicting – 2015 was the year the bitcoin price would experience the slow and steadier growth it needed.
In previous years there were a lot of unknowns in the cryptocurrency world. It was often believed that a better currency may come along or that bitcoin was just another form of the fabled ‘Tulip Mania’, a period in the Dutch Golden Age used as an example for when the price of an asset outpaces its intrinsic value.
And these concerns were real possibilities because bitcoin was new, and there were growing pains it had to overcome.
Institutional acceptance
This year we learned that bitcoin is probably not going away anytime soon, as evidenced by the continued rise in transaction volumes and legitimization from mainstream leaders and institutions.
Larry Summers, Blythe Masters and UK Chancellor George Osborne have all given approving statements on bitcoin or the blockchain.

This post was published at Coin Desk on December 30, 2015.