STEEM price prediction: A new chapter for the social media token?
It’s been a rocky price history for STEEM so far. Where’s next for the social media coin?
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After three years of trading below its launch price, the social media token STEEM saw a spike in April 2021. Will 2022 prove to be as eventful for the social media platform?
Steem was founded in 2016 by two Americans, Ned Scott and the blockchain developer Daniel Larimer, as a blockchain alternative to traditional social media, giving developers a platform on which to build decentralised apps. Unlike Facebook or Twitter, there is no central authority controlling the data on Steem’s social media apps. Instead, it is recorded on a decentralised blockchain.
There is another reason for users to post on Steem’s social media apps: it pays. Users earn STEEM, the native cryptocurrency, depending on the amount of upvotes their posts have. There are now more than 324 Steem apps for users to earn from, including alternatives to Reddit, YouTube and SoundCloud.
Is there a demand for decentralised social media apps? Before jumping into a STEEM price prediction, let’s first explore its price history.
STEEM’s price history
STEEM launched at $0.87 on 19 April 2016 and immediately started falling below its launch price. The social media token finally saw its first price surge a few months later in July, after the launch of Steemit, the first app built on the Steem network.
Steemit is remarkably similar to Reddit: users are able to post, comment and upvote other peoples’ content. It has one major difference: users are rewarded with STEEM for creating successful content. The more upvotes a post achieves, the more STEEM go to the content creator behind it.
By 19 July 2016, Steem peaked at $4.59, which made it the third largest cryptocurrency, behind bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH). The surge was also fuelled by listings on two major exchanges, Bittrex and OpenLeger.
STEEM failed to keep the momentum going and over the following months the price dropped dramatically. By the end of the year, STEEM had fallen below $0.20. The bearish trend continued into 2017 and on 10 March 2017 STEEM reached its all-time low of $0.069. The drop in price came after the news that co-founder Daniel Larimer had resigned from his position as chief technology officer of Steemit.
The latter half of 2017 proved to be more successful for STEEM, with the token reaching $2.60 on 6 June. This was just a taste of things to come, as in January 2018 STEEM saw its highest price so far. STEEM recorded its all-time high of $8.57 on 3 January 2018.
However, STEEM quickly conceded to the bears as, like many other cryptocurrencies in 2018, it saw a huge crash. By the end of the year, it had fallen below the $1 mark. Unlike bitcoin, which also saw its price fall in 2018, STEEM was not able to recover.
This price crash proved to have much larger implications for the Steem network, and in November 2018 Steemit revealed it was laying off nearly three-quarters of its staff. Ned Scott said in a Steemit post: “Given the weakness of the cryptocurrency market, the fiat returns on our automated selling of STEEM diminishing, and the growing costs of running full Steem nodes, we have been forced to lay off close to 70% of the team.”
STEEM never fully recovered to its January 2018 price and after news of the layoffs it dropped below its launch price. This bearish trend stayed with STEEM over the next three years and by the beginning of 2020 it stooped below $0.20.
STEEM did see a slight price spike on 19 March 2020 when it reached $0.30. This was after an announcement in February that Steemit was being acquired by Justin Sun, the Chinese-born founder of the Tron blockchain. The Steemit community was not pleased with the news and initiated a soft fork to deactivate Sun’s tokens.
Sun managed to change this after convincing three exchanges, Binance, Huobi and Poloniex, to mobilise customer deposits and stake large amounts of STEEM to return his tokens. However, this resulted in a large section of the community leaving the platform and founding an alternative blockchain called Hive.
After this takeover, STEEM’s price was dormant but surprisingly the coin saw a spike in spring 2021. The coin peaked at $1.40 on 10 April and kept the momentum into May. However, the price did fall again and closed December 2021 at $0.43.
As 2022 progressed, the token continued trading sideways around the $0.35 mark, but rallied to highs of $0.58 in late April (the highest value recorded so far this year) following a listing on Binance. However, these prices were not maintained after multiple market-wide downturns in the second quarter, falling consistently below the $0.20 mark. However, the token has regained some momentum and at the time of writing on 19 August 2022, the token was trading at $0.24.
Could another price surge be in store for the social media token, and what is the latest STEEM price prediction for 2022 and beyond?
STEEM price prediction
Opinions among forecasters on a STEEM coin price prediction are mixed.
PricePrediction.net estimates a gradual upward trend: at the time of writing, its STEEM price prediction 2022 is a maximum price of $0.31. It forecasts this will climb to an average of $0.86 in 2025 and its STEEM price prediction for 2030 shows a significant rise to $5.71.
TradingBeasts’ STEEM price prediction forecasts an uptrend in the shorter term. It predicts STEEM to reach $0.35 by the end of this year, and $0.37 by the end of next year. The site forecasts that in three years’ time, the token will also be worth $0.44. The furthest STEEM price prediction provided forecasts a value of $0.38 in December 2025.
WalletInvestor’s STEEM crypto price prediction says it is a “very good” investment and forecasts the token to be worth $0.33 in a year’s time. Unlike TradingBeasts, WalletInvestor expects this trend to continue and its STEEM price prediction 2025 is for the token to close the year at $0.84.
FAQs
Is STEEM a good investment?
It might be. The price of STEEM has been dormant for the past few years, but the social media token traded higher than its launch price in April 2021 for the first time in three years. However, the price has since fallen.
Remember, you should always do your own research before investing in cryptocurrencies, as they are highly prone to volatility.
Will STEEM go up?
It could do. The STEEM price predictions are mixed and can change at any time. WalletInvestor forecasts the token reaching $0.84 by 2025 whereas TradingBeasts does not forecast much growth. Remember, price predictions are often wrong, so never invest more than you can afford to lose.
Should I invest in STEEM?
It depends. There are some bullish STEEM forecasts, with PricePrediction.net forecasting it to reach around $5.83 in 2030. However, not all analysts are optimistic. Remember, you should always do your own research before investing.
