Bitcoin will be 'flat, likely to rise' in late 2022, analyst says as Saylor bets on Bitcoin hitting $1M

Bitcoin has retained two of its most prominent backers, but one of them has slashed his bitcoin price predictions.

In an interview with CNBC on June 9, Tom Lee, co-founder of independent research firm Fundstrat, revealed that he is not sure whether BTC/USD will end the year higher than it was at the beginning of the year.

Lee thinks the market has "bottomed out"

Market sentiment is near all-time lows due to macro stress coupled with black swan events such as the Terra LUNA implosion, and Bitcoin price expectations for 2022 have dropped significantly.

While many believe there will be a capitulation event in the coming months that will see BTC/USD drop to $20,000 or below, Lee believes the current underlying strength is something to watch.

Lee, meanwhile, shrugged off the Terra debacle and layoffs at major cryptocurrency companies, including U.S. exchange Coinbase, saying bitcoin has "performed much better than people expected."

When asked about the direction of bitcoin's price through early 2023 - even if the underlying stock market rises - the answer is less optimistic.

He concluded: "I think Bitcoin will be flat this year, and maybe even rise."

Lee has previously been known for being bullish on bitcoin, including predicting that it would hit $200,000 in 2022 shortly after it hit its latest all-time high of $69,000 last November.

Saylor on BTC: "If it doesn't go to zero, it will go to a million."

Meanwhile, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor was unabashedly bullish, firmly dismissing any notion of a permanent price drop in comments to the mainstream media.

In an interview with CNBC on June 8, he said that those who claim that Bitcoin will be banned or zeroed have been "discredited."

Saylor predicts: “If the deniers and skeptics are wrong — and they’re all wrong on this one, obviously — Bitcoin won’t go to zero, and if it doesn’t go to $1 million.”

While this is nothing new, Saylor's "very bullish outlook" is increasingly at odds with a broadly bearish view on risk assets in the new era of central bank tightening.

As reported by Cointelegraph, some believe that a meaningful price recovery will not occur until the next block reward halving in 2024.

Meanwhile, Saylor said there’s no need to “time the market” when it comes to buying more bitcoin for existing reserves.

“We’re not trying to time the market; I think all the stats on the S&P and the Bitcoin index are that you can’t time the market. We’re just reinvesting free cash flow into the market as the situation allows. "

According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, BTC/USD was trading around $30,500 as of writing on June 9.

BTC/USD 1-day candle chart (Bitstamp) Source: TradingView