As the Federal Reserve pivots and cuts interest rates, Bitcoin will rise above $50,000 this year, although it will fall short of reaching a new all-time high. That is according to Ran Neuner, Founder and Host of Crypto Banter.
“Between now and the end of the year, I definitely see Bitcoin going above $50,000” Neuner told Michelle Makori, Lead Anchor and Editor-in-Chief at Kitco News.
Neuner, who is also the Co-Founder and CEO of OnChain Capital and has more than two decades of experience in finance, claimed that “we’re going into a [Fed] loosening cycle.”
“As much as [Fed Chair] Jerome Powell kept a very strong demeanor in his last conference, the market didn’t believe what he said,” Neuner observed. the market is expecting three rate cuts this year.”
Neuner’s forecast comes amid a Fed tightening cycle, with the Fed raising its key policy rate by 25 bps on March 22nd. The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates by 475 bps over the past year in an effort to combat high inflation.
To find out when Neuner forecasts Bitcoin will reach its new all-time high, watch the video above
Binance Woes Continue
The world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, is facing lawsuits from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which accuses the company of willfully evading federal law and operating an illegal derivatives exchange. Binance’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), and its top compliance officer are also being sued.
Neuner said that Binance would most likely end up paying a fine based on civil proceedings, but there could also be “criminal” charges down the road.
“When I read the allegations in these documents, a lot of them come across as criminal in nature to me,” he stated. “If we do get a criminal suit, then I think the game changes a little bit… that could take the price of crypto down, and could send shockwaves down the crypto ecosystem.”
Claiming that it is not entirely clear where Binance operates, Neuner nonetheless suggested that the U.S. operations are “squeaky clean” with regards to the law.
“You can mess with regulators in Seychelles and Mauritius and those kinds of jurisdictions, but you don’t want to mess with regulators in the United States,” he said. “I suspect that Binance U.S. was actually run the right way.”
Bitcoin rally
Despite the trouble with Binance, Bitcoin is up 72 percent year-to-date, and the overall crypto market cap has increased by 49 percent since January.
Although central banks worldwide have tightened monetary policy, Neuner claimed that more liquidity had in fact stirred the rally.
“There is more liquidity in the [United] States in response to the banking collapse,” he explained. “There’s more liquidity in China because China is starting to stimulate its economy again… You’ve got the Bank of Japan trying to defend the yen, putting more liquidity in the market.”
Neuner proposed that Bitcoin in particular had rallied due to its increasing role as a safe haven amid financial and geopolitical instability. This made it similar to gold, which is traditionally viewed as a hedge against uncertainty in markets.
“If you look at [Bitcoin] now, it’s actually starting to have a higher correlation towards gold,” Neuner observed. “People are starting to appreciate that it may actually be an improvement to gold.”
To find out looming threats Neuner sees for Bitcoin, watch the video above
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