Once a Bitcoin Skeptic Turned Enthusiast Hints at $55,000 by Next Halving

Bitcoin is currently trading around $9,500 down from the 2019 high of $13,900, hit in June. The leading cryptocurrency is up by over 156 percent YTD but still down by 52% from its all-time high (ATH) of $20,000.

However, in less than a year, this ATH would be long gone as we might make it to $55k by next halving, according to Joe Kernan, a former Wall Street stockbroker and now co-anchor of CNBC’s Squawk Box.

Kernan who not long back compared Bitcoin with tulip mania, recently came out as an unlikely hero for Bitcoin when he said, “I’m a bitcoin bull now,” while clearing out how Facebook’s Libra is not a cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin halving will push it to $55k

In his latest interview with guest Katie Stockton, the founder and managing partner at Fairlead Strategies, Kernan discussed the potential of Bitcoin hitting $55,000 by May 2020.

Will bitcoin reach $55k by May 2020? @JoeSquawk discusses #btc with @StocktonKatie pic.twitter.com/r1b5rNhX1s

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) July 29, 2019

This figure for BTC price by Kernan is associated with the next reward halving that is expected to occur on 18 May 2020 and has less than 300 days left. The fourth reward halving will reduce the miners’ reward from 12.5 BTC to 6.25.

The last halving preceded a bull rally that took BTC price to a new ATH and this halving is expected to do the same. We have already started to see the beginning of the new bull cycle.

Bitcoin is Scarce like Gold

Though his fellow guests were not feeling this number as BTC is currently below $10,000 and Kernan hinted that he is teasing Bitcoin enthusiasts, he further compared it with gold.

He basically pointed out the stock to flow ratio that is based on the scarcity of an asset. This model has been used by the analyst that goes by planB on twitter, who recently said Bitcoin could very well go beyond $1 million value and hyperbitocinization era could see us measuring things in BTC instead of US dollar.

#bitcoin bull markets seem to start at difficulty bottoms.

We saw difficulty bottoms (miner capitulation) in Dec 2011 ($4.6), May 2015 ($230) and Dec 2018 ($3691). Price continues to rise from these bottoms until ATH around 100x .. implying a continuing uptrend until $370K ATH. pic.twitter.com/xgwp3SeHfb

— PlanB (@100trillionUSD) July 26, 2019

Bitcoin is the first scarce digital object the world has ever seen like silver & gold but can be sent over the internet, radio, satellite, etc, explains the analyst.

Per this model, gold has the highest SF of 62 while Bitcoin’s is currently at SF 25 that will double to 50 in next halving. This puts Bitcoin market capitalization at trillion-dollar and the value of one BTC at $55,000 and over.