Bitcoin has ended the year down nearly 80 percent and further still from its highest level, but a number of investors are predicting better days ahead.

The cryptocurrency started the year on $13,609.79, surging to $16,741.48 on Jan. 7 before dropping to $3,689.11 as of 9:15 p.m. EST on Dec. 31.

Although there was a small “Santa Claus rally” before Christmas after bitcoin dropped to a year low of $3,194.96 Dec. 16, the rally has since faltered as investors seemingly are sitting and waiting to see what happens.

With billions in value wiped off the capitalization of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies over the year, it would be logical for many to be pessimistic coming into 2019. But this being bitcoin, some are predicting rosier days ahead.

In one particularly optimistic view, Bobby Lee, co-founder of BTCChina, is predicting that bitcoin will bottom out at around $2,500 in January before it starts a new bull run in 2020 that will see bitcoin’s price rise to a whopping $333,000.

If history repeats perfectly, then the current bear market for #Bitcoin would bottom out at $2,500 next month, in Jan 2019.

And then the next rally would start in late 2020, peak out in Dec 2021 at $333,000, and then crash back down to $41,000 in Jan 2023.
Something like that? https://t.co/M8ljIVnt73

— Bobby Lee (@bobbyclee) December 7, 2018

Brad Garlinghouse, chief executive officer of Ripple, told Newsweek that institutional investors will continue to bolster crypto markets but he didn’t provide a specific price prediction. One such example of increasing institutional interest is that of New York Stock Exchange owner Intercontinental Exchange, which announced earlier Monday that it had raised $182.5 million for its cryptocurrency startup Bakkt LLC.

Mike Novogratz, former Goldman Sachs fund manager and founder of Galaxy Digital LP, said he believes that the glory days of bitcoin will be fairly quick to return, predicting that bitcoin will hit $20,000 next year, a figure also predicted by Sonny Singh of Bitpay Inc., according to The Express. Fundstrat co-founder Thomas Lee is more bullish yet, offering a price prediction of $36,000 in 2019.

Regardless of price movements, it’s clear that 2019 will continue to see an industry correction across the board. Leading bitcoin mining company Bitmain Technologies Inc. recently announced it was laying off up to 50 percent of its staff, and other companies have either declared bankruptcy or closed down their cryptocurrency divisions. Until there is a significant turn in bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices, more industry exits should be expected.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The excesses of the 2017 boom have yet to be completely corrected, but a leaner market with fewer industry participants, particularly as more alt-coins fold, can only strengthen those left standing.

Image: Torange