Why Fundstrat Still Sees Bitcoin Hitting $200,000, Despite FTX Meltdown

Bitcoin has already lost more than 76% from its November 10, 2021 all-time high (ATH) of $69,044 when its total market cap reached 1 trillion dollars.

The digital asset is going through quite a challenging year, first having to deal with the ongoing crypto winter and losing all the gains it had when the market rose towards the end of October due to the sudden collapse of the FTX exchange platform.

After managing to reclaim the $21K territory, BTC was once again in a downtrend and is now struggling to reach just the $17,000 region.

At the time of writing, according to tracking from CoingeckoBitcoin is trading at $16,473, and while it has gained 4.1% over the past seven days, it is still down nearly 21% over the past 30 days and down 71% year-to-date ( YTD) basis.

The virgin crypto is not in a good place right now, and some of its bullish investors, like Fundstrat, are aware of it.

Stock research firm believes crypto, Bitcoin is not dead yet

Earlier this year, Fundstrat caught the attention of the crypto space when it said that Bitcoin will probably now $200,000 this year.

Unfortunately, such a bullish forecast failed to become a reality as BTC moved on the opposite side of that idea, losing most of the value it gained last year.

Image: Bitcoin Association

When asked last week whether he believes or not crypto is already deadFundstrat head of research and managing partner Tom Lee was adamant that this is not the case.

“It is an important moment for the industry. I think it clears a lot of and clears a lot of bad players. But do I think crypto is dead? No. I think there are a lot of people throwing gasoline in a crowded theater and yelling ‘fire,'” Lee said.

However, the research leader admitted that 2022 is a terrible and bad year because no one in the industry made money. However, he insisted that this is not unlike the crypto winter in May that paved the way for the development of some of the best projects in the space.

Tom Lee weighs in on FTX implosion

When asked about his views on collapse of FTX which left the crypto market in a battered state, Lee said that what happened to the company leans more towards a lack of internal regulation and was not caused by a flawed business model.

Fundstrat’s managing partner said:

“If you look at an industry like crypto that is self-regulated, it’s important to create, essentially, a kind of functioning central bank-like activity that can carry out operations when there’s stress…FTX itself was not able to play that role. “

Meanwhile, regarding what awaits the crypto space and Bitcoin in 2023, Lee said that next year could be another terrible year if there are more scams, although he also believes that from the ashes of this crash year, the industry can rise stronger and be better.

BTC total market cap at $316 billion on the daily chart | Featured image from Scott Mlyn | CNBC. Chart: TradingView.com