«Bitcoin Pizza Day»: Will the Anniversary Be Followed by an All-Time High?

«Bitcoin Pizza Day»: Will the Anniversary Be Followed by an All-Time High?

The first Bitcoin payment was made 15 years ago. Since then, the cryptocurrency has risen sharply in value. Will the next record be broken soon?

His hunger was the beginning of a fundamental change: it was May 22, 2010, when the American software developer Laszlo Hanyecz wanted to order two large pizzas. Nothing unusual, really. What was special, however, was that he wanted to pay for his meal with Bitcoin and thus carried out one of the first commercial transactions with the emerging digital currency.

He was prepared to spend 10,000 Bitcoin on it. It took three days before a 19-year-old student agreed to the deal and delivered two pizzas from the Papa John's chain to the software developer. He put the 10,000 Bitcoin towards the purchase of new video games.

Soaring High and No End in Sight

He may now regret spending the bitcoins so quickly. Back then, 10,000 Bitcoins were worth around 41 dollars, today they are worth a good 870 million dollars.

There is no end in sight to the soaring price. The cryptocurrency is currently trading above the 100’000 dollar mark again.

This is fueling investors' fantasies. Is Bitcoin heading for a new all-time high?

Like a Rollercoaster

For Zurich-based Bitcoin specialist Rino Borini, this is a very realistic scenario. «We have even defined the 150,000 dollar mark as our target for this year», says the co-founder and CEO of «House of Sathosi», an independent consulting firm.

But according to Borini, the journey there is likely to be a rollercoaster ride: «I can well imagine that we will see a new record high of around 110,000 to 115,000 dollars in the next few weeks. However, there may well be double-digit price declines on the way there», he says.

Bitcoin Like a Swiss Army Knife

According to «Bitcoin Suisse» the digital currency is currently benefiting from falling inflation, growing global liquidity and institutional capital inflows. «Bitcoin is increasingly positioning itself as a versatile asset, comparable to a Swiss army knife - suitable for both risk-on and risk-off scenarios», the company writes.

Structurally, there is an ongoing shift in the ownership structure towards institutional investors. The proportion of bitcoins held by governments, companies and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) is now around 14 percent. Listed companies in particular are driving this trend: according to Bitcoin Suisse, they have added over 180,000 bitcoins to their balance sheets since the beginning of the year.

Structural Shift towards Institutional Investors

«This development highlights the increasing tension between supply and demand», the company emphasizes: «In our view, these structural changes should further reduce volatility and accelerate Bitcoin's maturation process.»

So is Bitcoin heading for an all-time high? Bitcoin Suisse is also convinced of this. The Zug-based company is not even ruling out a price target of 180,000 dollars this year.