Cryptocurrency influencer joins bulls with a $50,000 end of year valuation for Bitcoin based on failings in the fiat market. Merten Says Bitcoin will go to $50,000 in 2018Nicholas Merten, whose dedicated Youtube channel ‘data dash’ has nearly 300,000 followers, is an entrepreneur and investor in the crypto space with a wide-reaching influence who occupies a position somewhere between John McAfee and Tom Lee. When he tweets his opinions and predictions to his over 34,000 followers he can cause a change in trends. His latest prediction that has Bitcoin at more than double it’s 2017 high by the end of the year relies on some major failings in the fiat market. In his Tweet Merten lists four factors he believes will push the price of Bitcoin up to highs never before seen. My predictions for 2018:#Bitcoin will be $50K by the EOY. Why?– Interest rates will continue to rise– Deutsche Bank will go under by the 2018– Equities and housing prices will take a massive hit– With trillions of $’s that need to exit, the SEC will create a Bitcoin ETF— Nicholas Merten (@Nicholas_Merten) May 27, 2018Merten is a known crypto evangelist but even a few of his followers questioned his reasoning in the tweet. A follower who uses the handle Sammy Tommy pointed out that interest rates have no correlation with cryptocurrency prices and that though Deutsche Bank is restructuring, there is no way a bank of that size is going under by the end of the year. When another follower asked for his prediction on the year-end crypto market cap Merten wrote that in his model it should go to $1 trillion. Among market predictors, Merten seems to occupy the middle ground between the antics of John McAfee who trades on his image of being a maverick in any space he occupies (Merten also shows himself on Twitter with guns) and the Tom Lees and Brian Kellys who bring a more traditional buttoned-down aspect to market predictions when they appear on shows like CNCB’s Fast Money. Bulls Predicting Prices from $15,000 – $100,000No matter if they are talking about the collapse of fiat banks or soberly discussing their charts and graphs all of these bulls are calling for a big number for Bitcoin in the fourth quarter. Despite Bitcoin falling below $8,000 again over the last week, Tom Lee sticks by his year-end prediction of $25,000 which relies on regulation clarity to open up the floodgates of institutional money. Oddly John McAfee, who has promised to eat his own manhood live if Bitcoin doesn’t reach $1 million in 2020, is calling for Bitcoin to reach $15,000 by June which he says will be on track to meet his million dollar prediction according to his magic algorithms. Though $50,000 is at the high end of the prediction spectrum it’s only half of the high point, CEO of China’s first Bitcoin exchange, Bobby Lee, called for when he said Bitcoin will end the year at a $100,000 double that and reach a million which would mean Lambos for all and save John Mcafee from a very awkward meal. Image from ShutterstockYoutube Celeb Nicholas Merten Makes Big Bitcoin Prediction was last modified: May 28th, 2018 by John McMahon