I think it will rise in price quite a bit by the end of this year, but it will never reach the $1000 it once was.
$1000 definitely won't happen this year. i don't even think next year. it will need to be a stable rise.
i think it will go to $400 at most. i'm already happy if we maintain $300 this year.
At some point when the new ETF and exchanges start opening up for business and as wealthy onlookers and hedge funds start coming on board, the amount of new money that comes in won't just come in in a small and steady fashion. There'll be massive green candles coming and the price jumps will be huge. And, that's just the diagnosis w/o the remittances, e-commerce, precious metals holders coming in. It's most likely gonna blow the doors off this thing and be an incomprehensible rise that will make history going forward. People are so down in the dumps right now that they either forget what happens during bull markets or are new and can't conceive of such a situation happening.
You are right, Chef. This market being so thinly traded that any sort of big move cuts like a hot knife through butter. There simply isn't enough liquidity on either side to stop it and big moves snowball as traders all pile on.
That said, we are more stable than 2013 because the the market has better price discovery mechanisms: futures, leveraged long/shorts, skilled traders to take on whales, and more liquidity. Bitcoin will only be "stable" relative to current capital markets in 5-10 years, when its market cap is much higher and has millions more in liquidity on either side of the orderbooks. At that point, we may be trading in bits.
Until then, strap in or get off the bus because it's going to be a bumpy ride both ways.