Despite the downturn, some analysts, including Tom Lee, remain optimistic about Bitcoin’s potential to reach $200,000 and ether $7,000 by year-end — both would require about a doubling in price over the next eight weeks.
Cryptocurrencies took another sharp leg lower on Monday, with the bounce from the Oct. 10 crash now having essentially fully reversed.
Already having slipped below $108,000 from above $110,000 overnight, bitcoin BTC$107,661.53 plunged to $105,500 in the early hours of the U.S. trading session, now lower by 4% over the past 24 hours and 8% over the past week.
Altcoins bore a bigger brunt. Ether ETH$3,722.54 plunged below $3,600, down 7% over the past 24 hours and 14% over the past week. Other major altcoins like solana SOL$176.58, BNB BNB$1,029.56, DOGE$0.1743 and ADA$0.5791 tumbled 8%-10%.
The downturn in prices rippled across derivatives markets, liquidating over $1 billion in leveraged trading positions across all digital assets Monday, CoinGlass data shows.
Despite bitcoin trading around the $110,000 mark for several weeks now, showing little momentum in either direction, some analysts are sticking to bullish forecasts they made earlier in the year.
Tom Lee, co-founder and CIO of FundStrat Capital and chairman of Ethereum-focused treasury firm Bitmine, said on CNBC Monday morning that he believes bitcoin could still reach as high as $200,000 by year-end. Ethereum, he said, could reach the $7,000 mark before 2026.
His Bitmine Immersion (BMNR), the largest corporate holder of ETH, was down 7.5% amid the crypto sell-off.
“Right now fundamentals are leading prices in crypto,” continued Lee, “so eventually we consolidate and then we rally into year-end.”
Riding the continued AI boom — with a plethora of new multi-billion dollar deals announced Monday — stocks opened sharply higher, but were giving up gains by mid-morning, with the Nasdaq now ahead just 0.4% and the DJIA lower by 0.5%.
Shares of major crypto firms slid, led by Circle (CRCL), which fell 7%, and Gemini (GEMI), down 6%.
Coinbase (COIN) dropped 4%, while Marathon Digital (MARA) declined by the same amount. Strategy (MSTR) slipped 3%, along with trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) which reports third-quarter earnings this week.
