The chief investment officer (CIO) of one of the ETF managers, Bitwise, has predicted that Bitcoin’s price will get to $200,000 or higher before the year runs out. In an interview with news outlet CNBC on Friday, Matt Hougan stated that the increased demand for Bitcoin would move the asset to six figures in 2024.
Hougan stated that Bitcoin would outperform its early 2024 prediction published in December. The asset manager noted in its yearly review that Bitcoin would break above its current all-time high and trade above $80,000.
“Based on what we are seeing in our ETF and these other ETFs, I think we need to revise this upwards. It could be $100,000, it could be $200,000, it could be higher than that,” Hougan told CNBC.
Massive Demand-Supply Dynamics
Bitwise’s CEO based the latest price revision on the “massive demand-supply dynamics” in the Bitcoin market. The new dynamic is evident, as reports have shown that ETFs buy up about 10-12x the amount of bitcoin that miners produce daily.
There is also an increased trading volume in spot ETFs, with investors scrambling into the Bitcoin product. Just this week, BlackRock, with ticker IBTC, pulled more than $2 billion into Bitcoin through its ETF product.
Hougan also noted that the fixed supply nature of Bitcoin is a factor that would drive the asset to $200,000. Over 19 million BTCs out of the 21 million ever to be mined are already in circulation. Notably, over 78% of the mined bitcoin is locked up in cold storage as owners are unwilling to sell.
Grayscale CEO Shares Similar View
In an interview on Friday, Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein shared similar views with Bitwise’s CIO. He noted that despite the enormous outflows from GBTC, they have never seen such insatiable demand for an ETF wrapper providing access to a new asset class like that of Bitcoin.
“Well, a lot of pent-up demand based on the spot Bitcoin ETF coming to market,” Sonnenshein stated. “We are seeing tremendous flows and tremendous investor demands, and that’s really also outpacing the supply of Bitcoin coming into the market every day,” he added.
Bitcoin is up over 40% this year, moving from $42,500 to $62,000 in roughly three months. Its market cap has also blown past $1.2 trillion.
