For more than 12 months now, Bitcoin has been on a steady decline. And despite losing more than 80% of its all-time high in December 2017, Robert Sluymer of Fundstrat Global Advisors still think that the worst is yet to come. He mentioned that “The price structure for most cryptocurrencies remains weak and appears vulnerable to a pending breakdown to lower lows”.
Recently, the entire crypto market has dropped by $1 billion this week alone. And currently, the entire crypto market cap is just around $111 billion. To give you an idea of how it looked like in 2017, the crypto market was able to reach its peak of $827 billion. During the start of 2017, Bitcoin started at around $1,000. Experts are starting to believe that the $100 billion price cap seems like psychological level support for the entire market.
From Bullish to Bearish
What made Robert Sluymer’s statement get the attention of the market is the fact that Fundstrat has always been bullish with cryptocurrencies. In fact, Tom Lee who is the co-founder of the company even predicted that by 2022, Bitcoin is on its way to $125,000.
The effects of Bitcoin losing its value has been a struggle for miners as well. Though Bitcoin remains under $3,500, the cost to mine Bitcoin is at $4,060 according to JPMorgan Chase. Mike Novogratz who consistently remained bullish on Bitcoin is also saying the same sentiment as Sluymer.
For Robert Sluymer, he also believes that the other cryptocurrencies aside from Bitcoin face a much bigger risk of losing its value. Sluymer also mentioned that “A break below the fourth-quarter lows at $3,100 would imply a decline to $2,270, while a move above $4,200 is needed to signal Bitcoin is beginning to improve”.
A Jump From Wishful Thinking to Reality?
In December 2018, Tom Lee mentioned that Bitcoin’s fair value is between $13,800 and $14,800. The numbers were based on the active wallet addresses as well as usage per account. However, the actual price was far from what he was saying. These days, Lee refrained from predicting the price of Bitcoin. He predicted that Bitcoin could reach $25,000 by the end of 2018.
One of the main reasons why Bitcoin and the entire crypto market sliding down was due to regulatory changes made by regulators. This has delayed the adoption of cryptocurrencies since many are hesitant to make a move until regulators made a final decision regarding cryptos.
Months ago, there have been numerous attempts to have a Bitcoin ETF. However, the US Securities and Exchange Commission denied all of these Bitcoin ETF applications citing the possibility of price manipulation. According to its chairman Jay Clayton, the agency is only going to be comfortable to approve a Bitcoin ETF only if there are changes in the market. It has been discovered as well that most crypto exchanges don’t make use of surveillance tools that could detect price manipulation.
Is it possible for Bitcoin to go up again? The good news is that it isn’t the only time that Bitcoin had a correction. And also, every time it did have a correction, it was able to bounce back higher. Could it be the reason to hold on to your Bitcoin despite a bearish market?
