Bitcoin prices will surge again this year

Bitcoin will rally this year and reach its previous highs, CoinShares Chairman Danny Masters predicted.

But here’s what needs to happen first: Better structures and a life cycle post initial coin offerings (ICOs) — the fundraising process that helps launch new cryptocurrencies.

“We need to see this [cryptocurrency] structure continue to build,” Master said on “Fast Money” Wednesday. “We need to see the custody solutions come and be provided. We need indices and we need performance measures where we can actually start to understand what we’re talking about and measure our performance.”

“We need to do more mature work around the ICOs, so that post ICO we have a token life cycle,” he continued. “And just give investors more clarity, better expectations, more transparency.”

Bitcoin was priced around $8,300 Wednesday evening, 5:30 p.m. ET. While the coin has recovered from lows earlier this year — briefly dropping below $6,000 in February — bitcoin is still far away from its mid-December peak around $19,500.

CoinShares, an investment firm specializing in cryptocurrency, launched the world’s first publicly traded bitcoin and ethereum fund.

Investors were optimistic that Blockchain Week New York and Monday’s Consensus event would help boost the large-cap coin. But bitcoin has under-performed, down 5 percent since Monday.

Masters pointed out that three years ago, the market and number of people interested in cryptocurrencies was very small. This week, however, more than 8,000 people showed up for Blockchain Week New York.

In fact, he said, bitcoin’s life cycle “is still very early.”

“In derivatives, indices, pricing models and so on that go on around [building a financial system.] We’re nowhere near that part yet,” Masters said.

“We’re not even at the part yet where I’d say institutional investors even started in commodities. Because these things — indexation, custody and so on — aren’t there to bring in those bigger people just yet.”