The 2021 Outlook for Bitcoin Prices, Adoption and Risks
Proponents of digital currencies are exuberant about the potential for 2021 after a monster year that saw highflying Bitcoin prices grab control of the spotlight.
That's nothing new – but the much wider feeling across Wall Street that "this time it's different" is.
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Bitcoin prices recovered from a multiyear slump in 2020. It breached its 2017 record near $20,000 in November, and it has gone parabolic ever since, sitting well above $40,000 as of this publication.
What might actually make this time different, however, isn't that Bitcoin prices hit new highs in 2020 and finished the year with a head of steam. It's that the cryptocurrency succeeded in its first trial by fire.
The resilience of that digital coin and others – and the reasons behind it – have many excited not just about the prospects for this young asset class in 2021, but also for the overall adoption of this burgeoning financial technology.
What Is Bitcoin?
First, a quick refresher for the uninitiated:
Bitcoin is one of many digital currencies. Unlike traditional "fiat" currencies created and operated by a government and central bank, Bitcoin is "mined," or created by people who solve mathematical problems with computing power. Transactions are kept on the blockchain, an encrypted and decentralized ledger that protects the integrity of
