Key Points
- Bernstein analysts have increased their year-end Bitcoin price prediction to $90,000, up from $80,000.
- They expect the upcoming Bitcoin halving to have a 'mild' impact on miners due to favorable market conditions.
Bernstein, a research and brokerage firm, has revised its year-end price target for Bitcoin to $90,000, up from $80,000.
The analysts predict a cycle high of $150,000 for Bitcoin in the 2024-2025 period.
Upcoming Bitcoin Halving
They believe the impending Bitcoin halving will have less of an effect on miners than previous halvings.
This is due to strong ETF inflows, low miner leverage, and strong network transaction fees.
The next Bitcoin halving is expected to take place on April 20, reducing the miners' reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block.
This could make some mining operations unprofitable.
Efficient Miners to Benefit
However, the analysts forecast a smaller decline in the network hashrate than in previous halvings.
They think this will benefit more efficient, lower-cost miners like CleanSpark and Riot Platforms, allowing them to gain market share post-halving.
These firms, along with Marathon Digital, are expected to become leaders in the space due to their self-mining capacity and liquidity.
Investing in Bitcoin miners is seen as the best equity proxy for the cryptocurrency, with the top three U.S. listed miners controlling about 10% of the total network hashrate.
Bernstein analysts have given CleanSpark and Riot Platforms an outperform rating, with price targets of $30 and $22 respectively.
Marathon was given a market-perform rating with a target of $23.
Dip Buying Opportunity
The analysts also view the recent $10,000 drop in Bitcoin's price from its all-time high as a temporary buying opportunity ahead of the halving.
They anticipate the market will consolidate prior to the halving and then the overall bull market will continue.
Bitcoin is currently trading at $66,845, up 5% over the past 24 hours but down 6.5% over the past week.
It has gained around 58% year-to-date.
