Mark Mobius is assuming bitcoin could hit 40% to $10,000 in the coming year

December 6, 2022: -Bitcoin could crash to $10,000, over 40% tumble from contemporary prices, veteran investor Mark Mobius told on Thursday.

The co-founder of Mobius Capital Partners, currently known for the drop to $20,000 this year, ad that bitcoin is “not far away” from the year $10,000 and that it has broken the technology, which supports levels of $18,000 and $17,000.

While Mobius expects bitcoin to hover near its current $17,000 level, he said the move to $10,000 could take place in 2023.

The investor, making his moniker at Franklin Templeton Investments, stated that his bear case for bitcoin stemmed from increasing interest rates and general tightening monetary policy from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

“With higher interest speeds, the attraction of holding or purchasing Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies is becoming less attractive from just holding the coin does not pay interest,” Mobius added via email.

“Of course, there have been several offerings of 5% or increasing interest rates for crypto deposits, but many firms offering such rates have gone bust partly due to FTX. So as those losses increase, people become scared of holding the crypto coin to earn interest.”

Numerous companies have offered investors sky-high interest prices for parking their crypto with them. Therefore, these firms would rely on lending users’ crypto out to others at high-interest rates, then splitting the proceedings with users. Therefore, many of these firms collapsed as crypto prices crashed and liquidity dried up.

One such company is Celsius, filing for bankruptcy in July. Another is BlockFi, which had significant exposure to the decreasing exchange FTX.

Mobius also said the boom is crypto-related to the Fed’s “printing machine working overtime so that price supply in USD increase by 40% plus in the previous years.”

“So there was abundant cash speculating on the crypto coin,” Mobius added.

The Fed has had ultra-low interest prices and engaged in quantitative easing over the past years, which has been credited with supporting the boom in parts of the market such as technology stocks and crypto. But the central bank is tightening its monetary policy this year by raising interest prices sharply.

“Now, as the Fed is getting back that cash, the ability for the public to play in the market becomes difficult,” Mobius added.