• Bitfinex says that Bitcoin could be on a massive bull cycle that will hit a new record price next year, with institutional interest expected to be the primary catalyst to the surge.
• Crypto ownership is also expected to spike to hit 950 million users as nationwide adoption in countries like El Salvador and Argentina acts as a major tailwind for the sector.

Bitcoin has gained an impressive 157% in the past year, marking an incredible bull market for the entire industry, despite headwinds such as the Binance crackdown by the SEC. However, according to researchers from Bitfinex, the top crypto could hit a new all-time high next year, with institutional interest in products such as ETFs expected to be one of the main catalysts.

In its Bitfinex Alpha report, the exchange looked at the trends that shaped the crypto market this year, the sector’s recovery after the FTX blow, Bitcoin’s sustained rally and what to expect in the coming year.

“If 2023 has demonstrated anything, it is the remarkable resilience of Bitcoin despite reputational and regulatory challenges,” the report concludes.

BTC outperformed all the other asset classes, from gold to the S&P 500 and NASDAQ100 indexes.

The report revealed that Bitcoin’s sentiment currently stands at greed, having started the year in extreme fear. This is reflected in the trading volume, which in January was at $2.9 trillion but has ended the year north of $3.6 trillion. On sentiment, Bitfinex expects an initial pullback to neutral or even fear before it shoots all the way to extreme greed, which will correlate with new BTC highs.

The top crypto’s Net Realised Profit/Loss metric shows a daily realized profit of $324 million daily. While this is higher than most altcoins, it’s still only 10% of the $3 billion per day levels recorded in the 2021 bull market. This suggests that BTC still has levels to go before the bull market turns bearish.

Bitfinex: Crypto to Have 950 Million Users

The growth will continue beyond the prices, with the global exchange predicting that crypto will have nearly a trillion users in the coming year.

It stated:

Looking ahead to 2024, and contingent upon market conditions, we anticipate that the number of global cryptocurrency owners could escalate to between 850 and 950 million as the monthly rate of growth usually increases to over 3.8-4.4 percent if we take 2021 bull market as a reference point and assume the current bullish market conditions to carry over throughout the entirety of 2024.

In 2024, institutional interest will define the trajectory the market takes. Bitfinex believes that this group will continue to invest in Bitcoin, especially once spot ETFs are approved. These ETFs, says the exchange, will be one of the defining trends of the next year.

A spot ETF is superior to existing solutions as it has “the potential to attract demand from previously untapped demographics, such as wealth managers and passive investors. Such an expansion in accessibility is likely to significantly impact the market, drawing in new segments of investors and further driving the growth of digital asset investments.”

AI will also be definitive in 2024. This has been proven by the surge in the value of the market cap of AI-related tokens, which now stand at over $25 billion.

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