Bob Ras is a blockchain executive and the co-founder of the distributed ledger company Sologenic.
Bob Ras on Where BTC Will Go
In a recent interview, Ras explained his thoughts on the present banking crisis and what outcome it’s likely to hold for bitcoin in the long-term. He said:
As big banks have been collapsing, it seems clearer by the day that these investors see bitcoin as a hedge because of its decentralized censorship resistance and lack of counterparty risk. There are growing expectations that the Fed will loosen monetary policy and effectively inject a lot more liquidity into the market to shore up the financial system, and bitcoin is front running this scenario, pointing to a future that is effectively a return to relatively low rates. I wouldn’t be surprised if $40,000 could be reached by the end of this year.
The banking crisis helped to cement the narrative of bitcoin serving as a key store of value that lacks the sort of counterparty risk of holding funds by way of bank deposits.
Ras was also quick to say what he thinks has been fueling the big bitcoin corrections we’ve been seeing. 2023 has been hugely different from 2022 in that it’s been somewhat bullish. 2022 saw bitcoin reach new lows and lose more than 70 percent of its value over the course of 12 short months.
In November of 2021, the currency hit a new all-time high of about $68,000, but just a year later, it fell into the mid-$16K range. He stated:
A big reason why bitcoin has performed so well was that it was just really oversold during the collapse of FTX. Plus, there’s on-chain evidence that more and more people and institutions have been accumulating bitcoin during the lows, which essentially translated into a supply shock. With so few sellers left, any uptick in demand has an outsize impact on price.
Despite all the positive sentiment about bitcoin and where he thinks it could go in the coming months, his message did contain a small bit of gloom and doom and a subsequent warning to investors. He said:
The biggest risk would be a sharp credit crisis that causes a rapid contraction. In such a scenario, all assets would have a correlation of one with each other, including bitcoin and even gold. I’m not sure such a scenario would happen, but it’s possible and would unleash a tremendous amount of volatility not only for bitcoin, but all markets.
The Halving Will Really Help
Still, however, he’s positive about where bitcoin will be next year, saying 2024’s halving will push it past its previous all-time high. He mentioned:
When bitcoin’s halving kicks in a year from now, we’ll likely be well on our way past the previous all-time high.
