Finance

Bears and bulls offer wildly different prognostications for Bitcoin

by Charlie Smith on January 6th, 2022 at 12:16 PM
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      The recent drop in the value of Bitcoin has been a real head-scratcher for some.

      Just as inflation fears were increasing thanks to a global supply crunch and sustained low interest rates near the end of 2021, the world's most famous cryptocurrency went into something of a freefall.

      Bitcoin is currently trading at US$43,441.80. On November 10, the cryptocurrency hit its 2021 high of US$68,789.63.

      That's a drop of nearly 37 percent in less than two months.

      So where's it headed? It depends on whom you ask. 

      "If Bitcoin breaks $42K it's headed to $30K," longtime cryptocurrency bear Peter Schiff declared on Twitter on January 5. "If it breaks $30K it could crash to $15k. All this might happen very soon."

      He advised those who've borrowed money against their Bitcoin to sell the cryptocurrency now to repay their debt rather than liquidating it later at much lower prices.

      But Goldman Sachs's co-head of global foreign exchange, rates and emerging market strategy, Zack Pandl, has a diametrically opposed view. In a recent report, he claimed that it could rise to more than US$100,000 over the next five years.

      Pandl attributed that to the "broader adoption of digital assets" as it takes market share from gold.

      The DeMarker indicator is a tool used by some technical analysts to determine the directional trend of the market gased on recent maximum and minimum prices. According to Bloomberg crypto writer Akshay Chinchalkar, it's flashing a "9-13-9" pattern, which suggests that Bitcoin could be about to rally again.

      Meanwhile, charts like the one below are being passed around over social media by some to suggest that perhaps the worst of the decline is over.

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