Michael Harvey, Chief Trading Officer at Galaxy Digital, stated that Bitcoin might enter a brief consolidation phase after recently soaring to an all-time high, but the likelihood of it rising again before the end of July is low.
Harvey told Cointelegraph: "Given the significant rise and new historical highs, my fundamental judgment is that a consolidation around the current price is warranted."
Bitcoin will be on an "upward trend" by the end of 2025
Harvey said: "I do expect BTC to rise before the end of the year, but it's realistic to pause here." He added:
"I think the best case for BTC price by the end of the month is a sustained slow rise."
He explained that reaching a new high by the end of this month would be the best case and would require sustained strong capital inflows into the U.S. Bitcoin spot market, the continuous accumulation of BTC $118,229 exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and a significant increase in retail demand.
Despite the strong recent capital inflow into spot Bitcoin ETFs and the continued rise in demand for Bitcoin asset management companies, there is still debate in the industry about whether retail demand has arrived.
Coinbase has recently jumped to 137th place in the U.S. Apple App Store, which is an encouraging sign that retail interest may be on the rise. However, the low search volume for "Bitcoin" on Google indicates that broader retail demand has yet to kick in.
As of the time of publication, the trading price of Bitcoin is $118,098. Source: Nansen
According to data from Nansen, Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $122,884 on Monday, before falling back to $118,098 at the time of publication.
The bear market for Bitcoin occurs below $110,000
However, Harvey also outlined the worst-case scenario for Bitcoin recently, which is that the price could fall back below $110,000.
He said: "A bear market is a risk-averse move driven by profit-taking and/or weakness in the stock market, and I believe this could lead to a 5-10% pullback in BTC."
Before Bitcoin broke through the historical high of $112,000 in May on July 9, cryptocurrency analyst Rekt Capital warned that the price expansion of the current cycle might only have a few months left, especially if it follows the same historical pattern as 2020.
Rekt explained that if the Bitcoin cycle follows the pattern of 2020, the market is likely to peak in October, 550 days after the Bitcoin halving in April 2024.