Bitcoin ‘has room to run' and trade half the value of gold: SkyBridge CEO

Spurred on by the recent Bitcoin ETF “selling machines,” Bitcoin could reach as high as $170,000 during the current cycle, says SkyBridge Capital CEO Anthony Scaramucci.

Bitcoin (BTC) has significant “room to run” from its current price of $69,000 and could one day trade at around half the total value of the global gold market, says SkyBridge Capital CEO Anthony Scaramucci. 

In an April 6 interview with CNBC, Scaramucci predicted that Bitcoin could reach as high as $170,000 during this cycle, adding that the bulk of the asset’s price appreciation would occur over a longer time horizon.

“I’m simply saying it could trade to half the valuation of gold, which is around six to eight to ten times move from here.”

“It’s not going to happen overnight and there will be a lot of volatility,” he added.

Bitcoin currently commands a market capitalization of $1.35 trillion, while gold boasts a total value of $15.8 trillion. If Bitcoin were to trade at half the value of gold, its market cap would need to grow roughly 6 times from here — which would result in a price of roughly $400,000 per BTC.

#Bitcoin is up over 140% over the last year, hitting all-time highs last month fueled by demand from spot ETFs. @Scaramucci discusses why he thinks Bitcoin is back: pic.twitter.com/HJxQEy6XY0

— CNBC's Closing Bell (@CNBCClosingBell) April 5, 2024

Describing the 10 recently approved spot Bitcoin ETFs as “selling machines,” Scaramucci argued these products would only continue to spur increased retail and institutional demand for the crypto asset.

The spot Bitcoin ETFs have now seen over $12 billion worth of net inflows into the ten products (excluding Grayscale). In contrast, when the Gold ETF (GLD) was launched in November 2004, it took nearly one year to notch $10 billion in inflows.

Like many other market commentators, Scaramucci viewed the upcoming Bitcoin halving — currently scheduled for April 20 — as a major catalyst for Bitcoin price appreciation in the short term.

Scarramucci also added that he “really likes” Solana (SOL) and noted that SkyBridge Capital held smaller positions in SOL, Avalanche (AVAX), Algorand (ALGO) and several other tokens.

Related: Bitcoin halving will have to battle with ‘weak time of year’ — Coinbase

Meanwhile, technical analysts have been charting similarly bullish predictions for Bitcoin price action in the months following the halving.

Pseudonymous analyst TechDev told their 440,000 followers on X that Bitcoin had closed two consecutive months above the upper Bollinger Band.

They added that every time Bitcoin had done this in the past, its price had doubled within the next three months.

In technical analysis, Bollinger Bands are a tool that measures the momentum and volatility of an asset within a certain range. Typically, when prices touch the upper band it can indicate an overbought signal while touching the lower band indicates an asset being oversold.

These metrics can often differ widely during peak bull and bear markets.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also added his voice to the bullish uproar, predicting that the value of the entire crypto sector would double by the end of this year.

Crypto market cap to hit $5 trillion: Ripple CEO

In an April 7 report from CNBC, Garlinghouse predicted that the entire crypto sector would be worth $5 trillion by the end of the year, looking to the upcoming halving, regulatory developments, and the increasing popularity of Bitcoin ETFs as having a continued positive effect on wider crypto adoption.

“I’ve been around this industry for a long time, and I’ve seen these trends come and go,” Garlinghouse said.

“I’m very optimistic. I think the macro trends, the big picture things like the ETFs, they’re driving for the first time real institutional money.”