By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – Bitcoin rallied to a near three-year high Tuesday, on signs of continued demand from Wall Street, with some suggesting the popular crypto could surge to $100,000 over the next 12 months.
Bitcoin rose 4.69%% to $19,185, a level not seen since the previous rally in 2017 that saw the crypto hit $20,000 before fading to a low of about $3,427.
Bitcoin's market cap, often used to gauge demand, has jumped to $356 billion, up from $329 billion last week.
The urgency to protect investments against inflation and weakening currencies in the wake of ultra-loose monetary policy and the yield on offer from the popular crypto have been the catalysts behind Bitcoin's rally, Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of multi-billion dollar blockchain project Chainlink told the Independent. "These two primary forces will drive bitcoin over $100,000,” he added.
Nazarov is not the only person talking up the prospect of a longer, faster rally that will take bitcoin to unprecedented levels.
Tom Lee, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Fundstrat Global Advisors, suggested bitcoin was set up up to deliver "fireworks" in 2021 after its halvening event earlier this year.
A halvening event occurs roughly every four years that halves the number of bitcoins in circulation to an estimated 3.4 million out of a total of 21 million.
Bitcoin went on bull runs after both the 2012 halvening and the 2016 halvening, and the latest run higher appears to validate that trend.
The dearth of supply has prompted some to make far bolder calls. Citi technical analyst Tom Fitzpatrick said in a note last week that bitcoin could surge to $318,000 by the end of next year.
Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, rose 2.15 % to $606.2, while Ripple XRP rose 0.41% to $0.243.