Bitcoin has a number of forks having the word "bitcoin" in their names. Some believe that such naming is a trick to make people believe that they deal with a coin as cool as Bitcoin (or even an improved version of Bitcoin). It may seem that such names arrogate Bitcoin's reputation despite the fact that these coins are in fact new different cryptocurrencies. This attitude can be justified by the fact that these altcoins have significant differences from the first cryptocurrency and have no such a flawless history of stable operation. Nevertheless, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, and Bitcoin SV have managed to preserve their significance on the market for some time.
In this article, we will analyze the trajectory of the Bitcoin Gold (BTG) price and will figure out how much will BTG cost in the future. First, we will highlight the main features of this asset and learn the history of Bitcoin Gold.
What Is Bitcoin Gold?
Bitcoin Gold is a Bitcoin hard fork. This fork took place on October 24, 2017, weeks before the entire cryptocurrency market capitalization reached its historical peak. The BTC holders have received the respective amount of BTG after the fork. At the start, the price of BTG was quite high (over $400) but then it quickly declined and was quite volatile for some time. In the so-called "crypto-winter" BTG lost most of its price and since then is struggling to regain its initial market value.
However, the asset is still listed among top50, is listed on many huge exchanges, and cannot be written off. The coin is loved by miners as it was designed to be ASIC-resistant meaning that it can be mined with small mining farms. We should give more details about Bitcoin Gold in terms of mining.
The very concept of Bitcoin Gold was to make Bitcoin minable again. By that time mining Bitcoin without using special mining devices (ASICs) was nearly useless. The hashing power of any GPUs and CPUs even combined together at home was too small to effectively participate in mining. ASIC devices needed to mine BTC are costly themselves and consume much power that makes mining a serious business impossible without a significant investment in the beginning. The creators of BTG used a different hash function (Equihash instead of SHA-256) to make the coin ASIC-resistant so regular GPU owners could mine Bitcoin at home in the early Bitcoin era style.
Although the Bitcoin Gold developers have managed to create a mineable coin, they were not so successful in making it secure. The coin network has a track record of 51% attack resulted in thefts, and the website of the project was hacked right after the launch. These events were the reasons for criticism in the cryptocurrency community and harmed the reputation of this coin that was delisted from some exchanges. Is Bitcoin Gold doomed to collapse? First, we will see how the price was behaving in the past.
Bitcoin Gold is available on many platforms. For example, you can buy it at HitBTC exchange. You can make various purchases with BTC, like items from online shops or even buy Walmart Gift Card.
Past Performance
When the token appeared on the market its price was peaking at over $500. Two days later it already crumbled down to around $140. There were two reasons for that. First off, the website of Bitcoin Gold was hacked and this incident received a negative reaction in the community. Secondly, BTC holders received free BTG and started to sell it because they were not planning to store this coin. In the consequent weeks, the price was volatile varying from below $110 to above $500.
The real surge started on November 21 when the trading low was around $201 and the price began to go up. In the days of December, the price was waving between $250 and $300 and reached a maximum of $488 on December 20.
It was the time of huge optimism in the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies were growing with the abnormal speed in those days. The Bitcoin Gold price fast gain was just a part of the common trend and we all know what was the next trend — in January the cryptocurrency market has shrunk.
After reaching the peak on December 20, the price began to decline slowly. On December 28, the price dropped below $300. In the first half of January, BTG was very volatile with highs at $380 and lows at $207. On January 16 the price dropped below the $200 mark and continued to decrease. On February 5 it was already slightly above $8 but then the price has risen again only to start nosedive in early March. It was happening parallelly with the Bitcoin price downfall.
In April — May of 2018 BTG was cost $50 to over $60 per coin. In May the Bitcoin Gold network experienced a successful 51% attack that had lead to the theft of 388,000 BTG from the cryptocurrency exchanges. At the time this amount was worth around $18 million. No wonder that while the entire cryptocurrency market wasn't too bullish, such an event caused the even worse downfall. On May 1 the price was above $70 but on July 1 it became slightly above $25.
For the rest of the year, the price was fluctuating from around $11 to over $30. Most of the time it was around $20. In January 2019 the asset was delisted by Bittrex due to the refusal of the Bitcoin Gold team to compensate losses caused by the security breach of the Bitcoin Gold network. As a result, by the end of the month, the price has dropped below $10 for the first time since the very launch of the coin.
For months, the price was oscillating below the $20 level however in May it managed to reach $20 again. Those days, BTC gained much value in a short time span. Once again it has led to the rise in the prices of other coins, including BTG. In late May, in June and July, BTG was above $20 but mostly below $30. By August, the value dropped below $20 — this time without any connection with the BTC price as it was still high at that time and wasn't declining. By the middle of September 2019, BTG was traded around $10. The whole of October the price was quite stable — around $8. It was decreasing in November and dropped below $6 by the end of the month. The decline was continuing in December, however, in January 2020 (once again together with the whole cryptocurrency market) the price of BTG has increased. On January 7 the price was below $6 but on January 15 it peaked at $23.
2020 wasn't that bright for BTG. Most of the time, the price was fluctuating between $8 and $10. However, things started to change when 2021st came. This year brought a new strong crypto rally and Bitcoin Gold became one of the main gainers of the first third of 2021. It took less than a half of a year for the Bitcoin Gold price to rise from $8 to nearly $130 in 2021. There have been ups and downs after the spring surge. By February 2022, the price was a little above $30.
Price Prediction
Bitcoin Gold has always been a crypto which price was following the major market trends. However, we hardly expected that in any time soon it will be growing faster than most of the rivals. We expect that BTG will continue its long-run growth with short periods of instability. Experts predict that by the end of 2022, the BTG price will reach around $50.
The implementation of Lightning Network which is scheduled for the near future will make BTG a handy payment means. The asset has examples of relative price stability in the past. In the world of the recovering economy these qualities can make BTG more popular than it is now. Yes, BTG doesn't seem to have champion qualities but it can still balance on the wave of the entire cryptocurrency market and the rising role of cryptocurrencies in the world economy. If we continue the optimistic line from the previous passage, the price can gain up to $79 by the end of 2023.
In 2024, the BTC block reward will decrese by two so we expect the warth of the crypto market. BTG price will benefit from it. By the end of 2024, it will definitely cross the $100 line and may reach up to $135. In 2025, it won't be growing as fast. Most probably, by the end of the year the price will reach around $176. By 2031, the BTG price can reach up to $1,300.