Credit - https://pixabay.com/photos/bitcoin-dollar-president-washington-2730220/

It feels like Bitcoin or cryptocurrency is trending on social media every day, and despite a surge in the price in the early part of 2024, there’s been some lackluster action since—to put it lightly.

Having hit a new all-time high in March 2024, the six-figure BTC price was around the corner. Some influencers said it’d happen by April, while others were more measured in their approach and said it’d be in the latter part of Q2. Both were wrong.

Now, price predictions are all well and good, but with an asset the size of Bitcoin and its trillion-dollar market cap, there are more than just a few lines and diagrams on a chart that will give you an idea of where the price is heading.

Narratives, catalysts, and momentum play a more significant part in price action than some people dare to think. While many believed that the road to $100,000 would be linear, it’s proven to be anything of the sort - so let’s look at some of the components that could send BTC into six-figure territory.

Continued Implementation In Casino Gaming

As with many other digital innovations, the casino gaming industry was one of the worst industries to explore the use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a means to deposit and withdraw money onto its site. While cryptocurrency casinos still make up a relatively small part of the bigger pie, they are growing in popularity. On its own, a Bitcoin casino isn’t the driving force behind a six-figure BTC price.

However, it’ll be one of several components and, more importantly, a use case for people looking for ways to spend their Bitcoin via platforms they understand, regardless of what casino game they’re playing.

The primary goal is for them to get used to connecting their wallet to the gambling provider and understand how crypto payments work. This helps to boost the asset's visibility and adoption, leading casino gamers to seek other ways to use their assets and other industries to explore ways to facilitate Bitcoin payments.

A Weakening Dollar

Recent Fed cuts will fuel positive price action for the BTC/USD pairing. However, it’s more due to the dollar's diminishing strength, especially in global trade. While many experts and analysts are downplaying this, there is a cause for concern on a wider scale for the US.

The emergence of BRICS has meant that Russia and China are developing a stronger working bond, so naturally, a movement away from the US dollar seems like it’s in the pipeline. Less trade and less emphasis on the US dollar will result in its weakening on the global market.

This means that assets like BTC, which an increasing number of investors view as a digital version of gold and buy during times of currency depreciation as an inflation hedge, could be one of the key factors pushing the price of BTC higher.

Altcoin Saturation

During the bull run in 2021, there were far fewer altcoins on the market. This meant that compared to 2024, people were investing their money in a smaller pool of digital assets. It was one of a number of reasons the market hit such surging highs three years ago, but the current overproduction of altcoins could be a blessing for BTC.

Yes, altcoins are the most attractive way to make money during bull runs. Due to this important characteristic, most operate with a small market cap and can multiply quickly with much less capital investment.

However, investors shore up their investments by leaning back towards BTC when the market retracts and looks shaky. Unlike XRP, which had its day in the sun in 2017, and although Ripple won their case against the SEC, it has fallen disastrously behind some of the other altcoins. However, if you’re to believe a certain section of X, formerly known as Twitter, the price is days away from hitting $589. For context, the current price is $0.53; the last time it was above $1 was November 2021.

With the ETF strengthening institutional confidence in Bitcoin, a decimation of the altcoin market could lead to Bitcoin and Ethereum tightening their grip as the main two assets in the crypto space, which could see BTC hit six figures even in subpar market conditions.

Final Thoughts

The most obvious catalyst would be the signal of another bull run. However, with so much sociopolitical uncertainty in Europe and several key economies teetering on the edge of a possible recession, it’s difficult to see where the capital or confidence comes from for a route one, good old-fashioned price pump—the likes of which we saw in 2021.

Other catalysts could play a role, and the omnipresence of multi-trillion dollar asset companies and their ETFs will obviously play a role, too. If we see a combination of the three main catalysts we’ve talked about today, there’s no reason BTC should not eventually reach $100,000 territory.