Bitcoin may see additional upside and surge as excessive as $100,000 by the center of 2022, in response to Antoni Trenchev of cryptocurrency lender Nexo.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap was buying and selling at $46,170.43 as of 8:42 p.m. ET Monday, in response to information from Coin Metrics.
“I suppose [bitcoin’s] going to achieve $100,000 this yr, most likely by … the center of it,” Trenchev, co-founder and managing accomplice at Nexo, instructed CNBC’s “Road Indicators Asia” on Monday. The agency claims to be the world’s largest lending establishment within the digital finance trade, in response to its web site. The corporate has issued greater than $6 billion in credit score and manages belongings for greater than 2.5 million customers globally, it mentioned.
Bitcoin has largely been a winner within the pandemic period, rising greater than 60% in 2021 regardless of being far off its document excessive of round $69,000 earlier that yr. As compared, the S&P 500 rose practically 27% throughout the identical interval, whereas the Dow and Nasdaq gained 18.73% and 21.39% for the yr, respectively.
However not everyone seems to be as bullish as Trenchev.
Some consultants have warned that bitcoin may be poised for a steep drop in the coming months. Carol Alexander, professor of finance at Sussex College, mentioned she sees bitcoin tanking as little as $10,000 in 2022, just about wiping out all of its positive factors up to now yr and a half.
Lingering regulatory scrutiny on the sector and wild price swings may additionally weigh on the outlook for bitcoin.
On his half, Trenchev mentioned there have been “two easy causes” why he sees massive positive factors forward for bitcoin.
One is that establishments are “constructing out their treasuries” and filling it with the cryptocurrency, he mentioned, with out offering any examples. Corporations comparable to MicroStrategy and Sq. are amongst identified examples of corporations which have purchased large quantities of bitcoin.
Another excuse is his prediction that “low-cost cash” is right here to remain — which will probably be a boon for cryptocurrencies.
His feedback come regardless of expectations the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates several times this year for the first time in the pandemic era because the U.S. central financial institution seeks to fight inflation. The Fed was amongst main central banks that took unprecedented financial easing steps in 2020 to maintain monetary markets afloat through the early days of the pandemic.
Admitting his “contrarian” view of lasting simple financial coverage, Trenchev mentioned most individuals seemingly “obtained it fallacious” of their Fed price hike expectations.
“I fairly frankly suppose that as quickly as we see a price hike, it’ll be a dip into equities and the bond market — and fairly frankly, the previous few years, we’ve not seen a lot political will to … energy by way of any type of correction within the conventional monetary markets,” he mentioned.
— CNBC’s Ryan Browne contributed to this report.
