Long-term Bitcoin holders will begin to realise some profits amid near all-time price highs, but we expect values to continue to rise due to more active market participants, predicts the CEO of one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory, asset management and fintech organisations.

The prediction from Nigel Green, chief executive and founder of deVere Group, comes as the world’s dominant cryptocurrency was less than 1% off its all-time high of $64,888.

The price highs come as the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF – the first of its kind – launched on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday at the opening bell.

Mr Green says: “The Bitcoin price has gained around 35% since mid-September as interest around the first SEC-approved Bitcoin ETF has grown.

“It’s been seen as a major test to see if mainstream investors are ready to include cryptocurrencies in their portfolios alongside other assets such as stocks and bonds – and it appears, judging by the reaction, that they are.”

He continues: “This will continue to drive not only Bitcoin but the wider digital assets sector, therby encouraging more ETFs, amongst other crypto vehicles, to be brought to market.

“This will inevitably bring in a growing number and broader range of active market participants, including those using pension funds, and retirement and brokerage accounts.

“The growing interest in and demand for crypto will help maintain the upward trajectory of Bitcoin and other digital currencies in the near term.”

In September, he forecast that the Bitcoin price would be back to its previous highs by the end of this year. This is already now almost proven to be an accurate prediction but, he says, the momentum will drive them further still.

Yet despite the growing number of active market participants which, as Nigel Green says, “as history teaches us, have matched with increasing interest in the digital asset in early stages of bull markets,” some long-term Bitcoin holders might “begin to realise profits.”

He notes: “Long-term holders typically buy in a bear market and sell in a bull run. They are spurred into realising some profits when the price is close to or breaks the previous all-time high.

“As such, we can expect to see some long-term holders now cashing in some Bitcoin with a view to accumulating more later.”

However, the deVere CEO concludes that any long-term holders’ selling is “likely to be balanced by growing activity by new investors” and that therefore “the price momentum should be sustained.”