“Forbes” columnist makes five predictions for the 2024 cryptocurrency market, forecasting the improvement of accounting rules in the United States, which will benefit companies adopting BTC and USDT by subjecting them to stricter audits and delisting risks. It is also predicted that Bitcoin will surpass $60,000.
Table of Contents:
Improvement of accounting rules favors companies holding or purchasing BTC
Approval of Bitcoin spot ETF
Tether faces delisting risk as it undergoes auditing
US banks embrace tokenized payments
Bitcoin will surpass $60,000
With the expectation of the approval of Bitcoin spot ETF, the narrative of halving, and the signal from the Federal Reserve (Fed) indicating a potential interest rate cut next year, the cryptocurrency industry is believed to have overcome the bear market of the past two years, and the upcoming 2024 seems to mark the beginning of a bull market.
Against this backdrop, “Forbes” recently published a prediction article on major events in the cryptocurrency field in 2024, reminding investors to prepare in advance for the new year. (The author is Sean Stein Smith, associate professor of business economics at the City University of New York)
Accounting rules improvement favors companies holding or purchasing BTC
Smith pointed out that the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in the United States officially announced on the 13th the first accounting standard update for cryptocurrency assets. This update allows cryptocurrency companies and companies holding cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum to use “fair value” to account for certain cryptocurrencies on their balance sheets and recognize changes in fair value in their profits.
Many foreign media outlets have also pointed out that this move will benefit companies with cryptocurrencies on their balance sheets, such as US-listed companies that continue to promote fair value accounting and the dominant Bitcoin holder, MicroStrategy.
Smith is optimistic about this:
Approval of Bitcoin spot ETF
The prediction with the least risk for 2024 is the approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). With the entry of asset management giants such as BlackRock and Ark Investment, the probability of ETF success will greatly increase.
The positive impact brought by the approval of Bitcoin spot ETF is also discussed.
Tether faces delisting risk as it undergoes auditing
It is worth noting that Smith mentioned that Tether, the issuer of the stablecoin USDT, will face stricter regulatory scrutiny in the future due to the lack of transparency in its issuance policy, various problems in its reserve composition, and the reluctance of its leadership to appear in the United States.
Smith warned that although USDT is the largest stablecoin in terms of market size and liquidity, with ongoing enforcement pressure from U.S. regulatory agencies, 2024 will also be a critical year for Tether’s survival.
US banks embrace tokenized payments
Another relatively easy prediction for 2024 is that many of the world’s largest financial institutions have already launched tokenized payment services on enterprise blockchains, such as Wall Street banking giant JPMorgan.
Smith stated that the business use cases of tokenized payments have long been understood by cryptocurrency advocates, and major financial institutions are catching up with these benefits, so this trend will continue to expand.
Bitcoin will surpass $60,000
Finally, Smith made a prediction about the price of Bitcoin in the coming year. He believes that conservatively, BTC is likely to surpass the $60,000 mark in 2024. However, he also reminded overly optimistic investors that although this figure is still below Bitcoin’s historical high, with institutional participants entering the market, Bitcoin may face greater volatility in the future.