RE: Will Bitcoin Go To $25,000 USD in 2018?
I am very skeptical with these wild claims with not much thought behind. The cost of mining comes from number of miners and the price of electricity. The price of electricity has nothing to do with BTC and anyways should stay constant since mining is done globally it can easily be moved away from the places that become more expensive.
Now for the number of miners, or hashrate power, it increases as more people get interested in BTC or see it as an investment (or speculation). At the end of last year it went up but it can be said that it worked the other way around, price went up causing more people to join.
I would even argue that the cost of mining goes up because the price of BTC goes up not the other way around, the correlation may work the other way as Tom is stating.
Will it go to $25,000 because of the cost of mining? No way.
Do I wish it goes to $25,000 for any other reason? Hell yeah
"The price of electricity has nothing to do with BTC and anyways should stay constant since mining is done globally it can easily be moved away from the places that become more expensive."
The problem is that you need the infrastructure. You can easily try to mine in Venezuela but you won't find the infrastructure you need.
The cost increase is probably due to China raising its energy prices where a huge part of the miners are.