Wall Street strategist Tom Lee has raised his mid-2018 bitcoin price target to $11,500, anticipating that the most prominent cryptocurrency’s recent correction has removed “weak hands” from the market.
Lee, a co-founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors, has been bullish on bitcoin throughout 2017. However, he turned short-term neutral earlier this month as bitcoin’s rally exceeded his mid-2018 price target of $6,000. At that time, he only recommended that clients purchase bitcoin in the $5,500 range.
Now, however, Lee is altering this assessment. As reported by CNBC, Fundstrat is raising its mid-2018 bitcoin price target to $11,500, predicting that bitcoin’s recent dip below $6,000 removed any “weak hands” from the markets.
“A few weeks ago, we turned short-term neutral on bitcoin as the price level then (~$7400) exceeded our estimate of fair value,” Lee wrote in the report. “Last week, Bitcoin fell to $5,600 and since then rebounded. In our view, this move to $5,600 cleaned up weak hands and we no longer feel caution is warranted … We recommend steady buying of Bitcoin at these levels.”
This new target represents 92 percent increase over his former forecast, and it provides bitcoin with 40 percent upside from its present value of $8,200.
Lee’s assessment is based on Metcalfe’s Law, a principle that states that the value of communications networks is proportional to the square number of the network’s users. Under Lee’s model, Fundstrat values bitcoin at the square number of bitcoin users plus transaction volume. He says that this model accounts for 94 percent of bitcoin’s year-to-date growth.
Fundstrat also predicts that shares of Grayscale’s Bitcoin Investment Trust (OTC: GBTC) will rise to $1,300 during that same period. GBTC shares are currently trading at $993, according to data obtained from Google Finance.
Lee was not the only high-profile bitcoin bull to raise his price target this week. Billionaire hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz doubled down on his $10,000 forecast, predicting that bitcoin will reach that milestone before the end of the year — months ahead of his former projection. Standpoint Research founder Ronnie Moas, meanwhile, raised his 2018 bitcoin price target to $14,000 from $11,000.