Researchers from the FinExpertiza Consulting group have recently concluded that bitcoin, the flagship cryptocurrency, was this year’s worst investment, and that palladium, a precious metal used in autocatalysts, was the best.
According to a report published by Rossiyskaya Gazeta, FinExpertiza’s research saw it look into 14 different financial instruments and analyze what would’ve happened to a 300,000 ruble ($4,330) investment into each one of them this year.
If the money was invested in bitcoin, the researchers noted, it would have dropped by over 72.2%, as 213,000 rubles ($3,000) would’ve been lost. On the other hand, if the funds were invested into palladium, the 300,000 ruble investment would’ve increased by 30,000 rubles ($433), or little over 10%.
Nina Kozlova, the general director of FinExpertiza, was quoted as saying:
And if we look in retrospect, for example of two years, we will see that palladium, in general, has become the only metal with a positive return.
Bitcoin notably started the year at roughly $13,400 and has kept on dropping to a low of little under $3,200. This month the flagship cryptocurrency started recovering and, at press time, it’s trading at $3,670.
According to Mati Greenspan, a senior market analyst at eToro, it could still drop to under $3,000 although the $3,500 to $3,000 region is seen as a support zone. The cryptocurrency’s fall notably hasn’t seen development and adoption stop, as earlier this month its layer-two scaling solution, the Lightning Network (LN), surpassed the 500 BTC capacity.
Last year, bitcoin went from $1,000 to a near $20,000 all-time high, which led some to believe its price was going to keep on growing. Tom Lee, a Wall Street analyst and the head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, maintained a $25,000 by year-end price prediction throughout most of the bearish trend, but lowered it to $15,000 last month.
Other long-term price predictions still see the cryptocurrency’s price surge in a small amount of time. One of the most bullish predictions is that of cybersecurity pioneer John McAfee, who has predicted BTC’s price will hit $1 million by 2020.
Palladium outperformed every other asset in the study as its price has been heavily influenced by the threat of a potential US-China trade war, and by demand that far surpassed supply this year, according to analysts.
