Can analysts maintain ‘$100,000 in 2021’ prediction for Bitcoin, after weekend slump

Bitcoin is back up above the $50,000 level after a recent slump over the weekend. Could the steep correction be a possible roadblock in its $100k year-end price prediction?

Current cycle peak

Ballet Crypto CEO Bobby Lee recently told Bloomberg that the market is still in a bull cycle, adding,

“We’re still in it and of course within the bull cycle we do have corrections…”

Going forward, he also predicted that Bitcoin is unlikely to go below $40,000 until its “peak out later in the bull market.” And the reason he believes that the current cycle is yet to see a peak is the fact that the BTC price has not doubled over a few days or even two weeks.

Further, talking about the weekend mayhem, Lee blamed the sharp correction on some “greedy Bitcoin traders”. He explained,

“What they do is, they go on long positions and short positions using leverage high leverage on margin or futures contracts…That’s when the market drops so much.”

Additionally, he also opined that the $200-million Bitmart hack also had a cascading effect on the market.

With that, the market weakness was also reflected in the CoinShares weekly flow report published on 6 December. It showed that the digital asset investments were dented with a US$40 million worth of outflows late Friday. Bitcoin alone saw inflows totaling US$145 million through the last week but suffered outflows of US$42m on Friday amid investor fears.

$100k in 2023?

Meanwhile, Bitwise Asset Management Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan told Bloomberg that $100,000 is a difficult price prediction this year. However, he is bullish on that level in 2022, considering crypto’s strong performance so far. Hougan said,

“I’d be very surprised if we got to $100,000 now. It is worth mentioning crypto is still the best performing asset class in the world. This year, Bitcoin is still up more than 150%.”

In this regard, Kate Waltman, an industry professional told Time that “educators in the space are predicting $100,000 Bitcoin in Q1 2022 or sooner.” Having said that, some “conservative predictions” are keeping $100,000 to be a feasible target for 2023 instead.

Moreover, experts are also keeping a close eye on announcements by the Federal Reserve and inflation levels for the coming quarter. However, Lee called himself a Bitcoin fan due to its features like “limited issuance” despite some other macro factors. He opined,

“Bitcoin doesn’t need to be able to use as legal tender for Bitcoin to be valuable. So the investment thesis does not rely on Bitcoin being a currency for daily use.”