Bitcoin is currently riding a four-month winning streak, reversing the course of 2022’s bear market and mirroring a similar streak it attained in 2021 when the leading cryptocurrency hit an all-time high.
So far this year, Bitcoin is up about 70%, touching above the $30,000 price mark recently before retreating. Nonetheless, it’s sloughing off last year’s bear market nicely despite the macroeconomic headwinds of rising interest rates and inflation.
Furthermore, Bitcoin’s volatility has been dissipating and its correlation with the traditional financial markets is beginning to wane. Its status as “digital gold” has slowly been returning, especially during the spate of bank collapses that forced investors to alternative assets like cryptocurrencies with the stability of the financial system in question.
“A four-month run of gains has in the past been followed by an average increase of 260%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg,” Fortune Crypto reported. “Such a jump would push Bitcoin past $100,000, compared with its all-time high of over $65,000 in November 2021.”
Bold Bitcoin Bets Return
Given its recent performance, bullish bets are starting to return as confidence returns to the crypto markets. When markets are riding a winning streak, it tends to bring out price positivism, such as international banking group Standard Chartered’s $100,000 forecast.
“Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick recently expressed his belief that the crypto winter is coming to an end,” Bitcoinist reported. “In a note on Monday, Kendrick stated that despite remaining sources of uncertainty, the path towards a $100,000 Bitcoin is becoming clearer.”
Triple digit Bitcoin price predictions were in abundance during 2021’s bull market, but 2022’s crypto winter muted those rather quickly. A confluence of factors can certainly contribute to Bitcoin reaching that level, including further adoption as legal tender by another country (as seen in emerging economies like El Salvador) or an influx of more institutional money, but nobody has a crystal bull to confirm price direction.
These factors can all happen in the long-term horizon, but in the short-term, all eyes continue to be fixated on the U.S. Federal Reserve and what course they decide with respect to interest rate policy. The overall sentiment is that while continued rate hikes are forthcoming, the Fed will eventually become less hawkish as 2023 continues.
“He (Kendrick) also predicted that risk assets will stabilize towards the end of the year as the US Federal Reserve concludes its rate-hiking cycle,” the Bitcoinist report added.
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