It’s been a rocky start to the year for Bitcoin, but experts still say it will hit $100,000 — and that it’s more a matter of when, not if.
Bitcoin’s price fell closer to $23,000 on Wednesday after struggling to overcome $25,000 over the last few days, which is proving to be a key level of resistance. After last week’s inflation data which came in lower than expected, the stock and crypto markets rallied last week. It also took some pressure off the Federal Reserve, which has been raising interest rates to lower inflation.
With confirmation that prices eased slightly last month, bitcoin might be able to eventually “burst above its recent trading range,” ?which has been between $22,000 and $24,000, says Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at broker Oanda. It could take a while, however.
“The recent crypto rebound has hit a wall as retail traders continue to lick their wounds and institutions respect key technical levels,” he says.
Moya says Bitcoin is showing some signs of stabilizing lately, but the market may not be out of the danger zone yet. Bitcoin has fallen below ,000 — a key price point — several times in recent months and the “majority of the crypto space is still skeptical of the bitcoin rebound that started in mid-June,” he says.
The crypto market crash in June was spurred by momentary de-risking from Wall Street as many investors are feeling pessimistic about the economy amid surging inflation, a shaky stock market, and rising interest rates. The crypto market has increasingly tracked the stock market in recent months, which makes it even more intertwined with global economic factors.
In addition to macroeconomic factors, Martin Hiesboeck, head of blockchain and crypto research at Uphold, says investors are still nervous about the crypto industry’s long-term viability after several major crypto players halted withdrawals, cut jobs, and tried to stem losses in recent weeks. However, crypto prices are much more vulnerable to factors contributing to the difficult economic situation than the pullback in the crypto ecosystem, he says.
Bitcoin has only been above $45,000 for a few short stretches over the past six months, and hasn’t been above $50,000 since Dec. 25, 2021. Amid the ups and downs, Bitcoin’s current price is a long way off from the latest all-time high it hit in November when it went over $68,000. But even with the recent decline in price, Bitcoin is still more than twice as valuable as it was just a couple years ago. For Bitcoin, these kinds of ups and downs are nothing new.
“The market remains vulnerable and on edge, not necessarily by threats from more crypto projects going bust but from the difficult economic situation we are facing right now,” Hiesboeck says. “In other words, the price of bitcoin depends more on the supply of gas to Germany as it does in any crypto-related news or metric.”
With no end in sight, the war, inflation, and shifting monetary policy in the U.S. will likely continue to drive more volatility in the coming weeks and months, experts say.
Despite the volatility and recent slumping price, many experts still say Bitcoin is on its way to passing the $100,000 mark, though with varying opinions on exactly when that will happen. And a recent study by Deutsche Bank found that about a quarter of Bitcoin investors believe Bitcoin prices will be over $110,000 in five years.
The volatility is nothing new, and is a big reason experts say new crypto investors should be extremely cautious when allocating part of their portfolio to cryptocurrency. Bitcoin has shown as steady a rise in value over the years as any other cryptocurrency on the market. It’s only reasonable for Bitcoin investors to be curious about how high it can ultimately go.
Bitcoin Price Predictions
It was easy to predict a $100,000 Bitcoin price late last year, coming off its latest all-time high in November. With Bitcoin’s big fall since then, the prediction game is even trickier.
The most extreme crypto skeptics say Bitcoin will tank to as low as $10,000 in 2022, but a middle ground might be to say the cryptocurrency can still climb to $100,000 like many experts predicted late last year — just on a slower timeline.dhaka
Unfortunately, Bitcoin’s price is extremely difficult to predict and even more susceptible to market factors than more established asset classes. But we decided to ask some experts for their best guesses anyway. Here’s what they said:
“The most knowledgeable educators in the space are predicting $100,000 Bitcoin in Q1 2022 or sooner,” Kate Waltman, a New York-based certified public accountant who specializes in crypto, told us back in November 2021.
But now, bullish experts are re-evaluating the crypto industry altogether as major corporations like Nike and other big brands are looking at ways to monetize their products in the digital metaverse. The rise of metaverse games, worlds, products, and experiences is increasing the popularity of altcoins, which has changed investors’ sentiments about Bitcoin (known as the original crypto).