Unveiling his 2024 price target, 10X Research\'s Markus Thielen expects bitcoin (BTC) to rally about 65% from current levels to hit $70,000 by the end of the year.
“Supported by the macro environment, monetary tailwinds, the U.S. election cycle, and gradually increasing demand from TradFi investors allocating to bitcoin ETFs, a bitcoin rally to $70,000 appears plausible,” wrote Thielen in a report on Friday.
As for the sluggish price action so far this year, Thielen notes that even as bitcoin has rallied in 10 of its 13 years of existence, January returns have been more mixed with just seven up years against six down.
One year ago this time, Thielen accurately predicted that bitcoin would nearly double to $45,000 by the end of 2023. Though not exactly getting it right with his January call for the spot ETFs to once again not win approval, Thielen did expect the price to fall back into the mid-high $30,000 area this January.
“While the Fed has pushed out the first rate cut to (possibly in) May or June, inflation is coming in lower, and growth is holding up,” said Thielen in his Friday report. He also took note of the U.S. presidential election cycles which coincide with the Bitcoin halving years as historically being bullish for prices. Specifically, bitcoin gained 152% in 2012, 121% in 2016 and 302% in 2020, or an average of 192%.
Bitcoin is currently down 4% year-to-date and trading at $42,700 at press time.