Tom Lee, managing partner and head of research at investment research firm Fundstrat Global Advisors, predicted in a recent interview that Bitcoin (BTC) will perform well in the rest of 2024, and its price may still reach $150,000 this year. .
In a new interview with CNBC, Tom Lee mentioned that one of the reasons he is bullish on Bitcoin is the settlement of the repayment of the collapsed Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. The Mt. Gox Reorganization Trustee announced last month that the exchange would begin repaying creditors in the form of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in early July this year. According to data from on-chain intelligence platform Arkham, the Mt. Gox wallet holds a total of approximately 141,000 Bitcoins (valued at $8.93 billion). Some people have long worried that the incident will have a negative impact on Bitcoin.
Tom Lee said on CNBC:
“Bitcoin may be suffering from the Mt. Gox distribution starting in July. It’s been a huge backlog over the years. But if I was investing in crypto knowing that one of the biggest backlogs was going to disappear in July, I would think that It’s actually a reason to expect a sharp rebound in the second half, so I think 150,000 is still within the (expected) range.”
Tom Lee said in January that demand for Bitcoin could increase significantly with the approval of Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs). He predicted at the time that the Bitcoin price could exceed $100,000 this year, "maybe $150,000." As of the publication of this article, Bitcoin was trading at approximately $63,000, with year-to-date gains of approximately 48%.
When interviewed, Tom Lee also predicted that the US stock market will be higher than the current level by the end of this year, although he believes that the increase in the second half of the year will not be as good as the first half. He said:
"Given the Fed has more reasons to be dovish and I think employment conditions may be softening, P/E ratios are likely to be higher next year. So I think stocks should be higher between now and the end of the year. My Meaning the first half was already strong, the second half won't be as strong as the first half, but we should be able to build on those gains, so yeah, it's looking pretty good."
