BTC prices have dropped nearly 50% so far in 2018, but there are signs of hope that the bear market will soon be over.
In fact, billionaire Marc Lasry, the CEO of Avenue Capital Group, just made a bold Bitcoin price prediction.
Lasry has invested around 1% of his personal fund in Bitcoin, and he believes BTC prices could reach $40,000.
He didn't provide a date of when that could happen, but from today's prices, that could be a potential profit of 5,267%.
Here is a recap of the top five cryptocurrencies by market cap as of 10 a.m. EST:
Cryptocurrency
Market Cap
Price
Change (24h)
Bitcoin (BTC)
$127,866,907,612
$7,452.38
+0.28%
Ethereum (ETH)
$48,104,272,547
$477.28
-3.72%
Ripple (XRP)
$19,105,027,074
$0.48
-4.86%
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
$14,341,917,704
$831.62
-4.00%
EOS (EOS)
$7,669,498,276
$8.56
-3.69%
Now here's a closer look at the top cryptocurrency stories of the day...
The Top Cryptocurrency Stories for July 19
BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK) CEO Larry Fink was previously opposed to cryptocurrencies. However, BlackRock has a working group that meets to discuss blockchain technology, according to The Daily Express. If an asset management firm with a portfolio worth more than $6 trillion gets into the market, you should see crypto prices start to climb.
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On July 13, Coinbase announced it is "exploring" five new coins to add for trading. Those include: Cardano, Basic Attention Token, Stellar Lumens, Zcash, and 0x. There could be short-term gains to be made if any of those cryptocurrencies are added, as Litecoin (LTC) prices climbed 32% the day after LTC started trading on Coinbase.
Entrepreneur John McAfee, who believes Bitcoin prices will reach $1 million by 2020, said in a July 17 tweet that he was unsure if the recent rise in BTC prices signals a bull market. However, he said that he's sure there will be a bull run at some point.
The International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) stock price is up over 2% today thanks to impressive Q2 earnings. Analysts were expecting earnings per share of $3.04 on $19.85 billion in revenue. Instead, IBM reported $3.08 on $20 billion in revenue. Earnings were helped by IBM's "Strategic Imperatives" sector, which includes cloud computing, cybersecurity, and blockchain technology. Year-over-year revenue from Strategic Imperatives increased 15% to $39 billion.