IOTA Price Prediction
To paraphrase an old saying, a rising Bitcoin lifts all altcoins. The continued rise of Bitcoin has drawn fresh attention to the broader world of cryptocurrencies. IOTA is one such project that has received increased attention.
What is the IOTA cryptocurrency? Does this currency have any long-term investment potential, or is it better to view this as a short-term hold? Let’s take a look at what the future might have in store for this currency.
What Is IOTA?
One of the key parts of any blockchain is its decentralized ledger. This ledger acts as a catalog of all of the transactions that happen on that blockchain. These transactions refer to the starting and ending wallet addresses for the currency. There are no names, physical locations, or other identifying information alongside them.
This ledger technology doesn’t have to be associated with blockchain, however. If there were a way to create this decentralized ledger without a blockchain, you would theoretically have a faster transaction speed since it is no longer tied to a larger blockchain ecosystem.
This decoupling of blockchain from the ledger was the idea behind IOTA.
Rather than being backed by a blockchain, IOTA has a decentralized, distributed ledger network called the Tangle network. This network essentially turns every node connected to the network into a place where transactions can be confirmed. The Tangle network is infinitely scalable since every participant in the network is its node, and each participant has to process two transactions.
The fast transaction rate and the project’s inherent scalability make IOTA perfect for its intended goal: improving machine-to-machine communication via the Internet of Things (IoT) concept.
IOTA Origins
Iota started as a machine-to-machine IoT economy in 2015. The project was called Jinn and announced in October 2015 by Sergey Ivancheglo, Serguei Popov, David Sønstebø, and Dominik Schiener. This product earned $250,000 during an initial offer. It was later rebranded as IOTA.
Part of this rebranding was creating the organization that would continue to develop this project, which eventually became known as IOTA.
Two different organizations handle IOTA now. IOTA Labs covers the development and rollout of IOTA and the Tangle Network, while the IOTA Foundation is a nonprofit that helps with increasing the reach and utilization of the network.
The Goal of IOTA
Ultimately, the developers behind IOTA want to see the costs of hardware and machine-to-machine communication lowered. The Tangle network can achieve this thanks to the low hardware requirements to run a node on the network. It’s also inexpensive to use the IOTA cryptocurrency as a transaction medium.
IOTA’s strength lies in the durability of the IoT economy. As more and more machines are connected via the internet, and as networks continue to improve, IOTA’s usefulness will only increase. Add in emerging concepts like the development of decentralized apps (dApps), and there’s greater potential than ever for IOTA to become a critical part of the IoT economy.
IOTA Technical Information
Looking at the general price action of IOTA, there’s been a clear upward trend over the long run. On September 5th, 2021, OTA saw a high at $1.94. Then, the price fell to just above $1 by the end of the month. Considering this is almost a 50% loss in its 3.6B estimated market cap, September, 2021 was not a kind month for this coin.
However, October 2021 has turned up better news for the crypto. In the first week and a half of the month, IOTA prices came back up to just north of $1.40. Its price has roughly doubled since the ICO, with its trading volume at over 94M as of October 21, 2021.
Historically, the cryptocurrency market does well in the fourth quarter of a year. We saw this last year with Bitcoin rising almost 100% between October 2020 and January 2021. During that same time, IOTA rose from $0.24 to $0.42 per coin or a 75% growth in three months. So long as the cryptocurrency markets continue to do well, IOTA can expect to do the same.
Fundamental Analysis of IOTA
Iota offers a novel way for businesses to improve their communications between devices. By creating a separate system for these devices to communicate on, these devices can talk without having to wait for other transactions on a blockchain. The Tangle network ensures that transaction and transfer speeds are very fast.
The main way that IOTA can do this is by forcing each node to process more transactions than what it commits to the network. This bypasses the so-called blockchain bottleneck, and lets IOTA process transactions without any fees. By making it easy to add nodes, IOTA is also easily scalable.
Major companies are starting to take note of IOTA. IOTA Labs announced a partnership with Volkswagen’s manufacturing services in 2019. Other players in the market are starting to take note of what Iota has to offer and are responding in kind.
As long as the IoT concept continues to be appealing and IOTA can improve on the technologies and network backing its goals, IOTA will continue to have real-world value.
IOTA Growth Factors
While it’s difficult to predict where cryptocurrency prices will be in a week, let alone years, prices have trended upward historically. As long as IOTA continues to be valuable to businesses, its price should trend upward, too. As with any high-profile cryptocurrency, there are several growth factors that are well worth investigating.
The Possibility of Instant Transactions
Currently, IOTA is the only remaining major cryptocurrency that gives its customers instant transitions, a clear advantage.This factor may be one of the leading reasons why IOTA is one of the best options in crypto for making microtransactions.
High Trading Volume
Right now, IOTA is trading for $1.44. With a total market cap of almost $400 billion and a trading volume of $578 million, IOTA is ranked number 44 in the cryptocurrency market by market cap. These figures suggest that IOTA may just be one of the most consistent on the market.
Ongoing updates from the developers continue to drive a healthy training volume for this currency that should encourage anybody to check out if IOTA is the right currency for them.
Potential for Large Growth in Scale
According to several experts, IOTA has an estimated price of $1.123, with the potential to go even higher. Add to that the possibility for large growth in scale and you’re looking at one of the most promising long-term investments currently available.
An Eco-Friendly Alternative to Bitcoin
BItcoin’s mining process relies on massive energy consumption, and a steady stream of negative headlines have emphasised BTC’s environmental damage. In contrast, cryptocurrencies that offer very low energy use continue to gain the attention of investors. IOTA currently uses about a millionth of the energy as other major currencies like Bitcoin.
Forecasted To Have A Strong Showing Post-COVID
IOTA’s potential improvements following a period post-COVID looks highly likely. The wide scale economic recovery that comes next is expected to lift the price by as much as 0$.60;. Over the long haul, meaning within three years, experts agree that an estimated jump in price could even reach $4.50 to $5. Several other indicators suggest a consensus: IOTA is in a good position to grow steadily after COVID restrictions diminish.
Should I Invest in IOTA?
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin have been able to stand the test of time over the last decade. If you take a look at the top 20 cryptocurrencies now compared to five years ago, you’ll see a vastly different chart. The world of crypto tokens is ever-changing, and new coins can emerge overnight.
Having said that, blockchain technology itself is entering a new stage of growth. New projects are applying blockchain in new ways, from Kusama’s para chains to IOTA’s Tangle network. These crypto projects with a purpose add real-world value by using blockchain. They have immense long-term potential, even if not all will measure up.
The cryptocurrencies with the best staying power will be the ones that fill a real-world need. Bitcoin has become an investment vehicle, while Cardano and Ethereum have smart contracts. Any investors in IOTA should carefully consider if IOTA will live up to its potential.
Where to Buy IOTA
The best way to buy Iota is on a dedicated cryptocurrency exchange. Once you buy on an exchange, you can move your cryptocurrency into the wallet of your choice.
These are some of the exchanges that have IOTA available on them:
- Binance: For the European users out there, the site features a couple of different IOTA crypto trading pairs.
- eToro: One of the larger platforms on this list, eToro lets you buy, sell, and move cryptocurrency at your leisure.
- Plus500: This exchange features CFDs for IOTA, rather than the coin itself, as a purchasable asset.
- PrimeXBT: For those that enjoy margin trading, this exchange will allow you to do so with IOTA.
- Stormgain: This exchange features low trade fees, making it a cheap option for you to grab some IOTA.
How to Store IOTA
How you store your Iota is going to depend on the level of security you need and how long you intend to hold on to the currency.
If you want to actively trade IOTA, you’re probably best to leave it on the exchange. If you intend to hold larger sums of IOTA, use a hardware wallet, or upgrade to IOTA’s own Firefly wallet.
Security is also an issue. Hardware wallets offer the best security, while app-based wallets like Firefly follow established industry standards to protect your coins. If you choose to leave your tokens on an exchange, you’ll be using a custodial wallet – relying on the exchange to hold your tokens for you.
If you prefer more direct control, opt for a hardware or software wallet. Armed with your private key, you won’t have to worry about an exchange crashing or any sort of security breach. IOTA has its proprietary Firefly wallet, a software wallet, out for users to download. The hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger also features IOTA support with its wallets.
Whether you use a software or hardware wallet, the underlying principle is the same. You transfer the crypto from the exchange to the wallet address and then keep the private keys safe, secure, and offline. If you need to transfer the IOTA out of the wallet, you can do so by logging in with your private keys. Then you can transfer the currency to whatever address you need to.
Summary
IOTA is a cryptocurrency trying to improve upon the Internet of Things concept for automation. By reducing hardware costs for creating communication nodes, hardware devices can communicate like never before. These nodes also act as the transaction processor of IOTA’s distributed ledger.
So long as IOTA Labs continues developing and improving on IOTA’s Tangle network, this cryptocurrency could see long-term gains for the next decade. Whether this is valuable to an individual investor will depend on their own financial goals.
