Bitcoin is set to more than double in 2023: Analyst

It might not seem like it given all the negative headlines, but Bitcoin’s price is recovering nearly on par with the big tech names.

And now, one professional price analyst is saying he’s betting on Bitcoin to officially end the year well above the doubling mark.

But before we dive into why, let’s compare 1-year-highs to current price:

• Meta: Still off 23%

• Amazon: Still off 43%

• Tesla: Still off 47%

• Bitcoin: Still off 49%

It’s actually pretty wild to take stock of that, given the absolute wreckage the wider crypto space has endured over the last year.

And yet, when you look at the underlying metrics, things appear to be setting up nicely for Bitcoin in 2023, according to Fundstrat’s Head of Digital Asset Strategy Sean Farrell. He’s a rarity: he’s a smart analyst who happens to cover crypto.

“I’m not sure if that says more about me, or the quality of analysts in the space,” he joked when we started our interview. (Watch Below)

From a risk/reward perspective, Sean’s call is that Bitcoin’s price in the cycle has already hit an absolute bottom. It could still retreat from here, but overall he’s pretty confident the rebound rally continues into year-end. There are a couple reasons why.

One, the reward for the miners who secure the Bitcoin network is set to be cut in half in about a year’s time. (It happens every four years and has historically kicked off a new bull cycle.)

“Halving the block reward obviously puts a bottleneck around the rate of supply increase, so that is just a fundamentally bullish catalyst for the asset, I think everyone is pretty familiar with that,” he said.

Projecting out the same multiple off the last cycle’s rally (2.7x) kicked off by the “halvening” means Bitcoin should hit around $42,000. Interestingly, the rally from that catalyst has roughly been less and less of a boost each time ever since the cycle in 2011 saw a more than 6X bounce off Bitcoin’s lows.

Two, Bitcoin has recently seen a somewhat silly addition to its blockchain. Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, have made their way to the Bitcoin blockchain. Up until now, collections and communities mostly focused on Ethereum and other chains for that. Now, NFTs on Bitcoin (so-called “inscriptions”) are causing more transactions and an uptick in activity.

“There’s just this cyberpunk ethos that’s kind of reemerged within the Bitcoin community that has been refreshing to watch given everything that has transpired within the last year,” Sean said.

Given certain upgrades that are expected to come to other networks, like Ethereum, in 2023, Farrell thinks enthusiasm for the wider crypto space as a technology could once again return.

“The thesis of censorship-resistant money, interoperable smart contracts, and digital ownership rights remain unchanged and I think is why we feel more excited than the median person about this year, because there’s going to be a re-focus on those fundamental things that brought us into the space in the first place,” he said.