Bitcoin exploded onto the global stage in 2017 with a massive rally that made many early adopters overnight millionaires.
The bitcoin price, which is up around 5% so far in 2020 after a rocky few weeks following the coronavirus crash, has swung wildly over the last year—down around 50% from its 2019 high.
Now, as traders eye the biggest quantitative easing program ever undertaken, bitcoin could outperform the wider market in 2020 with investors scrambling to keep up with a rapidly evolving and uncertain situation.
"Uncertainty about the virus. Uncertainty about the policy response. Uncertainty about the economic response to the virus and to policy. Changes in any one of those change economic outcomes."
Donovan added the latest consumer sentiment surveys should be "thrown away unread."
Amid all this uncertainty, bitcoin's roadmap remains unchanged with the highly-anticipated halving event looming.
Next month, the number of bitcoin rewarded to those that maintain the bitcoin network, known as miners, will be halved for the third time, dropping from 12.5 bitcoin per block to 6.25.
Bitcoin halvings are scheduled to continue roughly once every four years until the maximum supply of 21 million bitcoins has been generated by the network—something that isn't expected to happen until well into the next century.
"Bitcoin has been the best performing asset by far over the last year and over the last decade. With all the money being injected into the system at this time and the upcoming halving, I don't see any reason it wouldn't continue to outperform," said Mati Greenspan, the founder of financial advisory outfit Quantum Economics.
A survey of major bitcoin investors showed most were upbeat at the beginning of the year, with the bitcoin price expected to soar to over $20,000 per bitcoin in 2020.
"The current unexpected global crisis and a number of notable events in bitcoin’s pipeline over the next nine months is causing speculation throughout the industry that another bull run is on the horizon and I believe that we can only expect the price of bitcoin to continue in the direction that everything is currently pointing potentially towards that $20,000 figure and beyond," said Danny Scott, the chief executive of Isle of Man-based bitcoin and crypto exchange CoinCorner.