Galaxy's Research Chief Capitulates on Bullish Bitcoin Call After Tuesday's Plunge

Contrarian bulls might be taking some heart as at least one well-followed analyst is throwing in towel on his hefty year-end price target for bitcoin BTC$86,595.15.

"While bitcoin’s structural investment case remains strong, cyclical dynamics have evolved," Alex Thorn, head of research at Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital, wrote in a Wednesday morning note to clients.

Taking note of whale distribution, fading interest in BTC-adjacent investments, rotation to competing investment narratives like gold, artificial intelligence (AI) and stablecoins and treasury company "malaise" as contributing to headwinds, Thorn slashed his year-end price target for bitcoin to $120,000 from $185,000.

At least two other analysts were a tad more constructive. "There is no need to get too bearish on BTC at this point," said Charlie Morris, chief investment officer at ByteTree. The $100,000 level has the potential to be a major support level, as it has been tested multiple occasions, he said, but "bad things can happen, so we shouldn’t count on it."

Morris added that BTC, now barely in the green for 2025, currently is "in no way overbought and is underhyped," hinting at cautious optimism for potential upside once stability returns.

Standard Chartered’s Geoffrey Kendrick, meanwhile, saw opportunity in the volatility. "The dip below 100,000 overnight well may be the last one ever,' he wrote in a Wednesday note. Kendrick laid a phased dip-buying approach: pick up 25% of a target position now, another 25% if BTC manages to close above $103,000 on Friday, and the final 50% of the allocation if the BTC-gold price ratio moves back above 30, currently at 26.

Wednesday sees early gains

Bitcoin BTC$86,595.15 staged a modest bounce above $103,000 by early U.S. morning hours on Wednesday, recovering some of the losses from Tuesday's steep selloff that pushed prices below $99,000 for the first time since June.

Ethereum's ether ETH$2,928.96 rebounded almost 10% from Tuesday's low, when forced liquidations dragged the price to just above $3,000. The second-largest crypto traded at $3,340, up 10% from its worst levels Tuesday, but still down 6% over a 24-hour timeframe.

The fastest horses among altcoins were decentralized exchange token HYPE$26.72 and privacy-focused Zcash ZEC$392.06, leading the bounce with 6% and 10% gains, respectively.

Crypto-related equities opened the session with tepid gains after yesterday's major losses. Among the gainers was Coinbase (COIN), up 1.9% and Strategy (MSTR), ahead 1.4%.