Bitcoin and crypto prices have lost steam in recent months after surging into 2025 (even as a surprise BlackRock update hits the market).
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The bitcoin price, up from 2024 lows of just over $40,000, limped to an all-time high of $126,000 in October before falling sharply as fears of a bitcoin price crash nightmare emerged.
Now, as eagle-eyed traders spot a quiet China signal that’s just started flashing, some of the most bullish bitcoin and crypto speculators have said they expect a December Federal Reserve bombshell to power a bitcoin price boom.
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Fed chair Jerome Powell is poised to end the reduction of its $6.6 trillion balance sheet, known as quantitative tightening—predicted to fuel a bitcoin price boom.
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“Quantitative tightening we think will end December 1, that’s a de facto easing,” Cathie Wood, the chief executive of technology and distruption investor Ark Invest, said during a November podcast.
The Fed’s quantitative tightening program, which began in 2022, has reduced the Fed’s balance sheet to $6.6 trillion, from around $9 trillion at its peak, putting pressure on risk assets such as bitcoin as the Fed tries to suck liquidity from the system.
Wood pointed to easing liquidity conditions when she reaffirmed Ark’s long-term $1.5 million bitcoin price prediction.
Meanwhile, Tom Lee, the chair of crypto investment company BitMine Immersion Technologies and the chief investment officer of Fundstrat Capital, told CNBC that he expects the downward bitcoin price pressure to soon end following the sell-off that began in mid-October.
“When we look at those prior corrections, even bitcoin in the last few years … each of them had the recovery, the rise from the low was faster than the drip to the bottom,” Lee said, predicting the bitcoin price could climb back above $100,000 in December and may even chart a fresh all-time high.
“The recovery from there to all-time highs will be faster than the decline. That’s what happened in every crypto decline, because what you have is all the spooled up energy. People are sitting and waiting and there’s panic selling, forced sellers, but the buyers are being patient. That’s what will happen.”
Lee pointed to soaring expectations that the Federal Reserve will flip dovish during its December interest rate meeting, with the market now pricing in a near-90% chance of another 25 basis point interest rate cut—which would be the Fed’s third since September.
“Bitcoin has rebounded above the $90,000 mark amid rising expectations of a December Federal Reserve rate cut,” Greg Waisman, chief operating officer at Mercuryo, said in emailed comments, adding the company has seen “consistent buying patterns” on its platform.
“Even long-time bitcoin sceptics now acknowledge its role as a barometer of risk sentiment across global financial markets. The bitcoin price simply can’t be ignored. We’re seeing a Thanksgiving bounce across digital assets, led by the world’s largest cryptocurrency and supported by the recent rally in global tech stocks.”
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The bitcoin price has dropped sharply from its all-time high of $126,000 per bitcoin—though many traders are issuing bullish bitcoin price predictions.
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Elsewhere, institutional interest in bitcoin has been named as another catalyst that could push the bitcoin price higher, helped by the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock dragging the rest of Wall Street into bitcoin and crypto over the last two years.
“Institutions are just able to start getting involved,” Joseph Raczynski, a futurist at JT Consulting & Media, said in Finder’s latest bitcoin price prediction survey, adding he expects the bitcoin price to rocket to over $151,000 in December. “It’s just the beginning.”
In the same survey, Ben Ritchie, the managing director of Alpha Node Global, predicted the bitcoin price could top $200,000 this year as it gains broader acceptance as a store of value for institutional and sovereign treasuries and Fed interest rate cuts fuel bitcoin buying.
“Our bitcoin outlook is driven by fixed supply, rising institutional demand and broader acceptance as a store of value for institutional and sovereign treasuries. We believe further U.S. interest rate cuts will continue to support price action into the year’s end.”