Cryptocurrency experts have downgraded their bitcoin forecasts for the end of the year by 26 per cent — but still believe the coin has huge growth potential.

Comparison site finder.com.au has just released the results of its April Cryptocurrency Predictions Survey, forecasting how the top 10 by market cap and top three trending cryptocurrencies will perform in 2018.

Obviously, predictions of crypto prices eight months out has to be taken with several fistfulls of salt, and it’s been a savage month across the board since finder.com.au’s March survey.

Bitcoin had its second-worst quarter on record at the start of 2018, declining by over 50 per cent against the US dollar.

Undaunted, 13 fintech leaders (you can see who they are here) say it can still hit $27,898 by December 31, compared to their March prediction of $38,000.

Comparing the forecast market capitalisations for bitcoin, bitcoin cash and ethereum, ethereum is predicted to see the highest growth by the end of the year of 234 per cent – more than double that of bitcoin (114 per cent).

Bitcoin cash came in third with an increase of 40 per cent.

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The biggest potential mover is once again the currency created as a joke – dogecoin.

The panellists predict dogecoin can still rise off its current price of 0.0036 cents by 5,838 per cent. In March, they expected it to rise by 2,920 per cent off 0.0052 by the end of the year.

Cardano is expected to have the second greatest increase (812%), followed by Ripple’s XRP (526%).

The full details of the report, including how the experts came to their conclusions, can be found here.

 

This article first appeared on Business Insider Australia, Australia’s most popular business news website. Read the original article. Follow Business Insider on Facebook or Twitter.