Bitcoin’s price collapsed on Friday below $53,000, reaching its lowest level since the “Black Monday” following macroeconomic shakeups in early August.
The collapse appears to have fully corroborated the prediction of BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, who believes there could still be more pain to come for crypto holders.
- Bitcoin traded for $56,925 at 1:25 PM UTC, before collapsing to $52,871 by 8:55 PM UTC. It trades for $53,500 at writing time.
- On Thursday, Hayes predicted that Bitcoin could plummet even further over the next two days.
“BTC is heavy, I’m gunning for sub $50k this weekend,” he tweeted . “I took a cheeky short. Pray for my soul, for I am a degen.” - In early August, Bitcoin briefly dipped below $50,000 after the Bank of Japan raised interest rates for the first time in over a decade. However, Bitcoin and the broader market quickly recovered as the BOJ promised not to raise rates further so long as it threatened market stability.
- Yet Bitcoin and stocks are back on the decline as poor U.S. economic data this week continues to point towards a coming recession .
- On Tuesday, Hayes already warned that Bitcoin could “slowly leak toward $50,000,” blaming rising deposits to the Fed’s Reverse Repo Program (RRP) for sucking money out of the broader market.
- In his essay, he emphasized that his bearishness is “temporary,” and will likely only last until the end of the month before the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury inject the economy with more liquidity.
- “I expect intervention to begin in late September,” he said. “Between now and then, Bitcoin will, at best, continue to chop, and altcoins could dive deeper into the gutter.”
