- Bitcoin appears to be breaking out while stocks have struggled to regain momentum after a selloff.
- Entrepreneur David Gokhshtein says bitcoin will hit $100,000 as big investors flock to the token.
- He also shared why he thinks ethereum will hit $10,000 before the end of the year.
Bitcoin (BTC) is breaking out as US stocks seesaw, much to the delight of cryptocurrency enthusiasts and the disdain of skeptics.
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency is up 26% in October, has risen 36% since bottoming on September 21, and has logged a 61% gain in the last three months. By contrast, the S&P 500 is up a solid 2.8% this month, but less than 2% in both the past two-and-a-half weeks and the last three months. The index slid nearly 5% in September after seven straight months of gains.
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Crypto bulls, like entrepreneur David Gokhshtein, believe bitcoin’s run may just be beginning. In July, the founder of Gokhshtein Media and PAC Global correctly predicted that calls for bitcoin to fall to $20,000 were “wishful thinking” by bears and argued that the token, which he owns, wouldn’t slide past $25,000. It bottomed at about $29,800, according to CoinMarketCap.
Gokhshtein also aptly noted in August that the $50,000 mark was technical resistance for the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin tested that level and failed earlier this year, sending it back down to the low $40,000’s. But it’s since rebounded to $54,000, and appears poised to test its all-time high of $64,863.
Like all market prognosticators, Gokhshtein’s prediction track record is far from perfect. He called for bitcoin to advance into the $70,000s in late July, and later said the coin could soar to $85,000 — not to mention his bold $120,000 proclamation in June.
But Gokhshtein is holding firm to his bitcoin call. “I’m still going to stand on what I said last time,” Gokhshtein told Insider in a recent interview. “I’ll go a little step forward here. I believe bitcoin does cross $100,000. There’s no doubt about it.”
That milestone will come before the end of the year, Gokhshtein insists. The reason it hasn’t come sooner is because of the lack of regulatory clarity from the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gokhshtein said. Fears that government regulation will kill the burgeoning cryptocurrency space are keeping both large and small investors away, he added.
Another potential headwind for bitcoin was the SEC’s recent delay in making a decision on whether it will accept applications for a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). That could easily flip to a tailwind if a bitcoin ETF is approved. But Gokhshtein made it clear that the bitcoin space doesn’t depend on an ETF, even if it could help draw in a new crowd of investors.
“This space doesn’t depend on an ETF — it would be nice, don’t get me wrong,” Gokhshtein said. “Ultimately, we know where bitcoin’s headed. When it gets there, nobody knows.”
Wall Street warms to crypto after years of dismissing it
Bitcoin’s building momentum may prove to be a wake-up call for long-time crypto cynics who doubt digital assets’ utility and staying power, like JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon. According to CNBC, the CEO recently said that the so-called digital gold is more like “fool’s gold.”
Though its leader has said he has “no interest” in bitcoin at a Wall Street Journal summit in May, JP Morgan and its Wall Street peers are starting to take digital assets seriously. They are being forced to “get on board, or be left behind” as crypto gains popularity, said JP Lee, the ETF product manager at VanEck, in a previous interview with Insider.
“Anybody who five years ago was like, ‘We’re not gonna touch this,’ now they’re like ‘OK, well, we have to play ball, or else this whole generation of ideas, action, investments, is going to be operating in a different sphere than we are,”https://www.businessinsider.com/” Lee told Insider. “They have to play ball, or else they run the risk of letting this thing get so far away from them that they’re no longer part of the conversation.”
Bank of America is the latest big bank to join the fray, calling digital tokens “an entirely new asset class” and “too big to ignore” in an October 4 note. This broadening acceptance may draw even more clients to the nascent space.
News also broke this week that renowned hedge fund investor George Soros’ investment firm owns bitcoin, sending the digital asset spiking. For every Soros that reveals their position, there are many other well-respected investors whose bitcoin affinity is a secret, Gokhshtein said.
“Not everybody’s going to come out publicly and tell you that they’re buying bitcoin, but they are,” Gokhshtein said. “There’s too much money in the market. Way too much money. Institutions did not come in here to play for five minutes.”
Ethereum to $10,000, then $18,000
While bitcoin is still the world’s most famous cryptocurrency, it’s hard to mention it without also invoking ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency network.
Ethereum boasts a strong ecosystem of developers that are building decentralized finance (DeFi) projects while also creating and trading digital art called non-fungible tokens (NFTs). While so-called “ethereum killers” promise to dethrone the cryptocurrency, the incumbent’s network effect should keep it entrenched for a while, Gokhshtein said.
Gokhshtein said there’s “no doubt” the network’s native token, ether — which he owns — will rise to $10,000 by year’s end from current levels of around $3,500. From there, the entrepreneur said it could climb to $15,000 or even $18,000 in an astronomical run that mirrors that of bitcoin in 2017.
Four years ago, a feverish bitcoin rally brought the token from $1,000 to nearly $20,000 — and into the mainstream consciousness. In the next three months, its value halved.
History won’t repeat itself, Gokhshtein said, because the prevalence of big-money investors like corporations, banks, and even countries will prevent another crypto meltdown.
“You have countries buying the dip,” Gokhshtein said. “This is different. This is not 2017. 2021 is very different. Whales can sell on the news now, but people are buying it up.”