Insiders say BTC could test new highs in 2023

Bitcoin is up nearly 70% so far this year — and industry insiders who spoke to CNBC remain bullish, with one saying the world’s largest cryptocurrency could reach new highs.

Bitcoin previously hit an all-time high of $68,990.90 in November 2021. Since then, it has fallen around 60%.

Marshall Beard, chief strategy officer at cryptocurrency-headquartered Gemini, said $100,000 could be a possibility for bitcoin.

“I think bitcoin is likely to break all-time highs this year,” Beard said, adding that the $100,000 price figure is an “interesting number.”

Beard said that if bitcoin reaches its previous record high near $69,000, “it won’t take much more before it lifts” to $100,000.

Bitcoin needs to increase around 270% to reach $100,000.

Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer at stablecoin issuer Tether, said bitcoin could “test” its all-time high near $69,000.

The predictions of new records mark a more optimistic outlook than in January when industry executives told CNBC they expected 2023 to be a year of caution.

Part of the industry’s positive view of bitcoin right now actually stems from how the asset has performed during the banking crisis triggered by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the failure of two crypto-friendly lenders Silvergate Capital and Signature Bank.

Instead of crashing, bitcoin rallied.

Bitcoin supporters say this is proof that bitcoin offers an alternative to the traditional banking system as a place for people to keep their money safe.

“I think the rally can be explained by saying that people have been scared off the banking system by the collapses,” Oliver Lynch, CEO of Bittrex Global, told CNBC in an interview at Paris Blockchain Week on Thursday.

For years, bitcoin advocates have argued that bitcoin is a form of “digital gold” — a safe haven that can provide investors with a hedge against inflation and an investment in times of turmoil. But over the past few years, bitcoin has traded in correlation with stocks, especially the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

There are now signs of decoupling with bitcoin massively outperforming the Nasdaq, many other risk assets and gold this year.

But bitcoin also got a boost on hopes that the banking crisis might reduce the US Federal Reserve’s ability to be as aggressive in raising interest rates, which would be supportive of risk assets such as cryptocurrencies.

Discussion of where the price of the digital coin could go this year has been intense since Balaji Srinivasan, an investor and the former chief technology officer of Coinbase, the bet March 17 that bitcoin would be worth $1 million or more in 90 days. He bet $2 million.

The bet was in response to a Twitter user who said they would bet $1 million that the US does not go into hyperinflation.

Srinivasan claimed that “the world is redomining Bitcoin as digital gold” as hyperinflation kicks in, erodes the value of the US dollar, and nations, individuals and companies begin buying large amounts of bitcoin. Hyperinflation is the massive increase in prices in an economy.

A $1 million price of bitcoin would represent an increase of approximately 3,600% from the digital currency’s current price.

Most people have completely cold water on this prediction.

Gemini’s Bear said “there is probably a world where bitcoin hits a million dollars”, but not in 90 days as Srinivasan bet.

“I think for bitcoin to be a million dollars in 90 days, some crazy things happen in the world that we don’t want,” Beard said, adding that it could take 10 years to get anywhere near that number.

Tethers Ardoino echoed the sentiment that if bitcoin were to reach $1 million in 90 days, it would likely represent an unusual economic event.

“I’m a little skeptical about it, because frankly, I wouldn’t even hope for it,” Ardoino told CNBC in an interview at Paris Blockchain Week, which aired Thursday.

“Because if bitcoin would reach such a high price level, [it] will mean the entire economy will crumble. I’m not sure [that] is the world we want to live in.”