The bitcoin price rose enormously in the last year. We had about 150% increase in the past 12 months.
this is a normal amount of rise for bitcoin. and it is not even a new thing
What do you think caused that?
1. The Halving.
2. Nothing in particular. It is standard for BTC to gain value as a result of general adoption growing.
3. Future Bitcoin projects potential - mainly: Coin ETF, but at that time SegWit and LN were hyped as well.
4. Something else or combination of all factors presented above?
all of these can be the cause of the rise.
1) halving has led to less reward for miners to dump which means less sell pressure.
2) this is always there, bitcoin is getting adopted everyday whether by new investors waning to join in the >100% profit each year. or it is adopted by new merchants wanting to get rid of relying on banks and get rid of charge back scam.
3) SegWit and LN are not projects it is more of development, projects are ETF, Megauploan 2.0, OpenBazaar, and many things that I can't recall right now. and these projects introduce bitcoin to many so they are helpful.
4) the price itself has always been a big factor. when bitcoin continues doing well over time, more people notice this and feel more confident to invest.
Do you think rising trend will continue in 2017?
Or we will hit the ceiling soon due to current bitcoin problems: unresolved scaling debate, fee war etc.
we are too far away from the "ceiling". many say price should be $5000-$10000 per bitcoin and we are so far away from mass adoption, so you should expect a continued rise in 2017.