Tom Lee has slightly adjusted his Bitcoin end-of-year price by $3,000. Lee’s earlier prediction had the top-ranked cryptocurrency seeing out 2018 at $25,000. However, while speaking at the 2018 Asia Blockchain Summit, the Fundstrat research chief forecasted that Bitcoin would reach $22,000 by the end of the year.

This marks the first time that Lee is adjusting his BTC price forecast in 2018. Lee first made his predictions known earlier in the year and has stuck to his guns for the most part. He initially predicted a price surge after the Consensus conference in May. The rally failed to materialize. Lee also predicted that Bitcoin would be back at $20,000 by the middle of the year.

Speaking at the summit, Lee declared that under normal market conditions, Bitcoin should trade at twice the mining cost. According to Lee, the current BTC mining cost is about $9,100. At twice that cost plus a few additional factors, Bitcoin will reach $22,000 before the end of 2018.

The top-ranked cryptocurrency has endured a tumultuous 2018, dropping nearly two-thirds of its value from its mid-December 2017 highs. In June 2018, BTC twice fell below the $6,000 mark, setting consecutive 2018 lows in the process. In the last days of the month, prices began to recover with the second half of the year seeing BTC attempting to cross the $7,000 threshold.

Commenting on the price decline, Lee gave three reasons responsible for the drop. Lee identified the uncertainty that still pervades the market as a likely contributor to the price slump. According to Lee, the lack of regulatory clarity puts enormous pressure on the market, driving prices down in the process. Lee isn’t the only expert who holds this position. Ryan Rabaglia of Octagon Strategy also blames regulatory uncertainty for the massive decline in Bitcoin price. Speaking recently to CNBC, Rabaglia claimed that if regulations are sorted out, BTC prices will embark on a sustained bull run.

The second factor responsible for the BTC price slump according to Lee is the significant market correction that has occurred on multiple occasions in 2018. In 2014, Bitcoin also experienced a massive decline, dropping 70 percent in 300 days. It took only 200 days to achieve the same price dip, and Lee believes that the correction period will be much shorter. Thus, a price rally is on the cards for the remainder of the year.

Lee finally identified the emergence of Bitcoin futures as having a detrimental effect on prices. However, there are strong indications that BTC futures trading has insufficient volume to impact the price of the asset significantly. What’s more, Bitcoin futures trading is cash-settled—there is no physical delivery of the underlying asset.

The post Tom Lee Revises End-of-Year Bitcoin Price Prediction to $22k appeared first on UNHASHED.

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