Oft-Wrong Barry Silbert Express Confidence in Bitcoin

Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert wrote on Twitter Wednesday that he viewed the cryptocurrency climate as “a period of opportunity.”

“We’ve seen a number of down cycles in crypto before and while they’re never easy, this is a period of opportunity,” he wrote in the afternoon missive. “I’m encouraged by the close collaboration we’re seeing this week and believe the industry will emerge stronger than ever.”

Silbert, whose company manages the Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust, holds a reputation for sharing positive sentiments about the market directly before catastrophic crashes. “Bitcoin looking good,” he wrote in a March 8 musing that provoked a $7,000 crash, from $44,100 to $37,100 just four days later. “We’re buying.”

“Only one more week of tax selling,” he similarly declared in an April 8 assessment that preceded a 30 percent decline in bitcoin’s price, from $42,000 that day to $30,000 on May 8. “Hang in there.”

Does that mean we’re going to 0

— Convex Goblin (@convexcarrot) June 16, 2022

His latest declaration came after bitcoin’s decline to $20,100 early Monday. The price subsequently surged over an eight-hour period of low-volume trading to reach a high just shy of $23,000. The lack of volume led skeptical observers to question whether an influential buyer was attempting to lure retail traders into purchasing before another decline — while some questioned whether Silbert’s prediction was a bad omen.

“Does that mean we’re going to zero?” one user wrote in response.

“The whales are letting retail push the price up with literally no volume,” another wrote. “They might come later tonight or tomorrow push down well under 20k. The relief rally is over.”

Cryptocurrency rallied on the heels of a Federal Reserve meeting that ended Wednesday, a common occurrence in markets. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced after the meeting the Fed was hiking interest rates by 75 basis-points, or three-quarters of a percent. He said the Fed board would consider a hike of equal proportion when it meets again in July.

Bitcoin closed the day on a bullish note, but was set to retest its lows as of Wednesday evening — with bearish patterns emerging on both the five-hour and 30-minute charts. While analysts believe it could experience a bounce of uncertain proportions, they widely expect it to decline to unprecedented lows in the months ahead.

The token has never dipped below an all-time high set in a previous four-year cycle, a number that presently sits at $19,498. But with its creation in 2009, at the tail end of the Great Recession, bitcoin has similarly never experienced a catastrophic downturn in the economy. Blockchain analyst Willy Woo said Tuesday he expects it to dip at least to $15,400, a number that could lead to additional lows once it’s been reached. Numerous economic indicators suggest June’s low point for bitcoin and for equity markets more broadly will come around June 24.