According to CoinDesk: Dan Morehead, founder of crypto investment firm Pantera Capital, stated that Bitcoin (BTC) has completed its longest-ever period of negative year-over-year returns this summer. Morehead believes that this trend will not continue. He pointed out that as of June 12, the price of bitcoin had been negative on a year-over-year basis for 15 consecutive months, starting from February 8, 2022. The previous longest period had been less than a year, from November 14, 2014, to October 31, 2015.
Despite last week's drop from near-$30,000 levels, Bitcoin is currently up more than 20% year-over-year. Morehead mentioned positive catalysts for the market, such as July's favorable court ruling on the XRP token for Ripple Labs and endorsements from asset managers like BlackRock and Fidelity in the form of their spot bitcoin ETF applications. He also highlighted the upcoming April 2024 halving, when the BTC block reward for mining new blocks will be reduced by half. Morehead's models suggest that bitcoin bottomed out late last year and should reach around $35,500 by the April 2024 halving and nearly $150,000 by late 2025.
In other news, weak economic data from Europe on Wednesday led to a drop in interest rates, with 10-year government bond yields in Germany, the U.K., and the U.S. all lower by 12 to 20 basis points. U.S. stock indexes are higher, with the Nasdaq Composite's 1.5% advance leading the way, followed by the S&P 500's 1% gain. Bitcoin is up 2% to $26,400, roughly in line with the gain for the CoinDesk Market Index (CMI). The week's main economic event will be U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell's keynote speech at the Kansas City Fed's Jackson Hole Symposium on Friday morning, where he is expected to deliver a status quo message on the Fed's focus on containing inflation and data-dependent decisions on monetary policy tightening.
