Experts weigh in on the main events from 2020 that impacted Bitcoin’s price the most.
From the COVID-19 pandemic to mass-scale money printing and social unrest, 2020 was a wild year. Alongside a barrage of newsworthy events, Bitcoin (BTC) also turned in a standout year in the price category, ultimately rising from $3,600 to past $41,950, besting its 2017 all-time high of $19,892.
A number of events, both crypto-specific and mainstream, appeared as catalysts for Bitcoin’s price action. Several crypto industry players weighed in on the events they believe affected BTC’s price action the most in 2020.
Morgan Creek Digital co-founder Anthony Pompliano labeled Bitcoin’s halving as the event with the greatest effect on the asset’s price action, according to his comments to Cointelegraph. “The incoming daily supply decreased and demand has increased significantly, which has led to an increase in the USD price,” Pompliano said.
Bitcoin’s halving occurred on May 11, 2020. The third such event since the asset’s launch in 2009, BTC’s halving resulted in miners receiving 6.25 BTC for block rewards instead of 12.5 BTC. Previous Bitcoin halvings brought price declines followed by sideways price action, although tremendous upswings eventually occurred after each halving.
The event in 2020 was no exception, as Bitcoin soared past record highs several months after the May event. The Bitcoin Stock-to-Flow model from analyst Plan B serves as a popular forecasting tool in the crypto space. The model predicts increasing future BTC prices based on halvings decreasing the asset’s incoming supply.
Pierce Crosby, general manager for crypto asset charting platform TradingView, told Cointelegraph about three developments that he believes impacted the value of Bitcoin the most in 2020. The first aspect he noted: “Consumer continued adoption, apparent in Coinbase’s planned IPO.”
Major United States-based crypto exchange Coinbase recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for approval to conduct an initial public offering. The move would take the company public, resulting in tradable company shares on the mainstream U.S. stock market. The news actually coincided with moderately downward BTC price action on the day of the development, although Crosby’s comment appears to indicate the IPO as simply a result of underlying and ongoing demand.
The “institutional adoption, seen in MicroStrategy’s treasury re-allocation to Bitcoin” was another rousing event on BTC’s price in 2020 according to Crosby. A slew of large mainstream companies unveiled large Bitcoin positions in 2020. It all began as billionaire hedge funder Paul Tudor Jones revealed his Bitcoin position in May 2020.
In the latter half of the year, business intelligence firm MicroStrategy picked up hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin. Other firms, such as Jack Dorsey’s Square and MassMutual, also publicized BTC purchases as part of a buying trend for big players.
