Bitcoin still has room to grow through the year, but it is unlikely to sustain the $50 000 level. The altcoin market is also showing moderately positive dynamics.
ForkLog has gathered experts’ forecasts on expected moves in the crypto market in the near term.
Bitcoin
As we wrote earlier, the first cryptocurrency is rising on investor optimism regarding the US economy’s recovery and the imminent approval of the Bitcoin-ETF.
According to Roman Nekrasov, co-founder of ENCRY Foundation, January 2024 could mark a ‘milestone’ for the current growth of digital gold.
A pullback is possible, both in the absence of approval of applications by the SEC, and in the event of the launch of a Bitcoin ETF, since this would become a new lever of regulatory pressure on the market. The latter parallel is drawn with the coin’s correction after the launch of cash-settled Bitcoin futures trading in late 2017.
‘It is important to consider price movement from the standpoint of cyclicality theory and the forthcoming halving. The three previous halvings of miner rewards led the coin to new highs’, explained Nekrasov.
He also noted high adoption of digital assets and institutional interest.
The expert noted that the seven weekly green candles formed on the chart could signal a forthcoming correction, but the ETF euphoria could ‘smooth it out’.
‘The next target for Bitcoin could be the $48 000 level. By year-end there could be selling that may cool the market and slow the pace of the move’, he predicted.
Regional Director of CommEX in Russia and the CIS Anton Toroptev believes that investors are hedging risks in the first cryptocurrency due to fears of a potential recession in the US economy.
According to his forecast, by the end of 2023 Bitcoin could test the $45 000 mark and hold above this level.
‘The recent price spike also sparked a wave of FOMO. Investors, especially retail non-professional players, many in the crypto market, rushed to buy coins fearing the start of a bull cycle. This also supports the price of the first cryptocurrency’, added Toroptev.
The founder and CEO of BitOK Dmitry Machihin called the current situation another stage in the powerful upward trend. He believes Bitcoin’s rally could exceed the expectations of most market participants and observers both in price levels and duration.
‘With high likelihood, one can expect Bitcoin to hit a price ceiling in the $48 000-52 000 range over the next 4-10 weeks’, Machihin forecasts.
Trader Vladimir Cohen remains skeptical:
‘It is unlikely that Bitcoin can stay above the $50 000 by year-end without real liquidity inflows. I expect a correction to the $30 000-36 000 range’.
Altcoins
With investors focused on Bitcoin for now and in the absence of additional positive news, altcoins will show modest gains, according to Roman Nekrasov.
Ethereum is already showing such momentum, having held above $2000 and, according to Anton Toroptev, has a chance to test $2250 by the end of December.
Dmitry Machihin noted that investors choosing altcoins do so because they consider Bitcoin ‘too slow’ for their portfolios. He believes Ethereum has a chance to rise to as much as $2800 in the next 4-8 weeks.
‘Likely, the strong rise in alternative currencies will continue through the end of the year, but the correction in these assets could be particularly rapid and deep in the current market conditions’, he warned.
Anton Cohen drew attention to the heating up of the GameFi sector. Among the promising coins he highlighted GALA and Enj Alice. The trader also did not rule out the appearance of new meme coins by the end of the year and the rise of existing ones, such as Floki Inu.
‘There is also potential in the AI sector: FET, GRT, and surely there will be new coins there. I also have high hopes for DeFi: MKR, CRV and SNX. I myself hold in my portfolio FIL, ICP, ALGO, HBAR, LINK, SOL and ATOM — all coins, except the first two, are unlikely to deliver 10x, but they are more reliable investments’, added the trader.
Toroptev also noted that within the Solana ecosystem there is an active migration of liquidity into new projects.
Earlier, on December 5, the price of digital gold surpassed $43 500 and then tested the $44,000 level. The rise triggered a large volume of liquidations.
Earlier, Deribit’s Chief Commercial Officer Luuk Striers stated that Bitcoin futures indicators show a ‘supportive sign’ for further growth of the asset in the spring of 2024.