The head of digital assets research at global investment behemoth VanEck, Matthew Sigel, is predicting wild fluctuations for Bitcoin () over the coming months.
Starting with a bearish forecast, Sigel in a post detailing his crypto predictions for 2023 that Bitcoin could fall to between $10,000 and $12,000 in next year’s first quarter.
According to Sigel, Bitcoin miners are currently unprofitable and the resulting bankruptcies will trigger a crash in the flagship crypto asset’s price.
“Bitcoin will test $10,000 – $12,000 in Q1 amid a wave of miner bankruptcies, which will mark the low point of the crypto winter.
The MVIS Global Digital Assets Mining Index median market cap is now only $180 million, with nearly all constituents burning cash and trading well below book value.
With Bitcoin mining largely unprofitable given recent higher electricity prices and lower Bitcoin prices, we predict that many miners will restructure or merge.”
The MVIS Global Digital Assets Mining Index tracks the performance of firms generating at least half their revenues from mining digital assets or activities related to the crypto mining ecosystem.
Turning to a bullish forecast, VanEck’s head of digital assets research says that Bitcoin could rally to $30,000 from July next year as lower inflation triggers the easing of monetary and fiscal policies.
“Meanwhile, should our recession expectations materialize, the Federal Reserve would likely pause raising rates amidst softening inflation, while money printing and government budget deficits continue.
Merely a lack of bad crypto-specific news, under the above scenario, could cause the price of Bitcoin to climb a wall of worry back to $30,000 again.”
At time of writing, Bitcoin is valued at $16,692, down over 4% on the day.
