Bitcoin Won’t Reach $100,000: Allianz’s El-Erian Says

Mohamed El-Erian – Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz – believes bitcoin will never emerge as a global reserve currency and its price will not surpass the $100,000 milestone.

Still, he believes the cryptocurrency sector will survive the ongoing bear market and remain an important part of the “payments ecosystem.”

Bitcoin is not going to the moon

In a recent interview for CNBC, El-Erian described bitcoin as a technological innovation that reached its peak (nearly $70,000 in November 2021) thanks to the huge enthusiasm of investors, overconsumption and overproduction. However, the crypto winter and adverse macroeconomic events halted this progress, and the ecosystem is currently “reinforcing itself”.

According to the economist, investors should welcome the recent relative stability of the asset, which indicates that the worst of the bear market has already passed.

In his view, bitcoin and some of the altcoins will overcome their problems if watchdogs impose appropriate regulations. Nevertheless, he does not believe the price of the leading cryptocurrency will skyrocket beyond the $100K level, nor will it receive massive institutional adoption:

“To be clear, I don’t think bitcoin will become a global currency, I don’t think it will get massive adoption. When people say it will reach $100,000, $200,000, $300,000, they’re assuming massive adoption: you’re not going to get the.”

Despite his somewhat bearish attitude, El-Erian was once a HODLer. He bought bitcoin during the 2018 crypto winter, when the asset was around $3,000, and sold his position when it rose to $19,000 in 2020.

The opposite corner

A price tag of $100,000 per bitcoin is a huge milestone for the asset, and many proponents have previously speculated when (not if) it will go there.

Michael Saylor predicted a bright future for bitcoin, claiming it is on its way to $1 million. He went on to describe it as “unique” as no other such network provides the same level of security.

Even some industry outsiders, such as Zak Pendl – co-head of Global FX at Goldman Sachs, predicted a similar belief for the cryptocurrency.

Mike McGlone – senior commodities strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence – claimed in October that the asset will skyrocket to $100,000 in five to 10 years.

“The key right now is that it’s getting hammered, but it’s one of the most discounted it’s ever been on the 100-week and 200-week moving averages, and those are simple facts about supply demand and adoption,” he added.