Bitcoin Is Trading Near Record-High Again But Analyst Says We Are Staring At A Meltdown

Bitcoin’s (BTC) recent gains may be short-lived and “the whole rally in crypto is getting very long in the tooth,” according to Boris Schlossberg, a leading foreign exchange expert.

What Happened: “I think we’re very, very close to perhaps an intermediate-term top here. A little bit of a correction is certainly due at this point,” Boris Schlossberg, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management, said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Trading Nation.”

BTC traded 0.54% lower at $59,354.38 over the past 24 hours at press time, but was up 11.2% over the past week, indicating a recovery. It has an all-time high of $61,683, hit last month.

See also: How to Buy Bitcoin (BTC)

Bitcoin’s Recent Gains: The cryptocurrency’s recent gains came after PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL said it will allow its U.S. customers to use their cryptocurrency holdings to pay at millions of online merchants around the globe.

PayPal’s move came a day after payments giant Visa Inc V said it would allow payments to be settled directly via cryptocurrency on the Ethereum blockchain.

Schlossberg noted that Bitcoin’s high degree of volatility will likely mean transactions on platforms such as PayPal’s will be “infinitesimally small” compared to regular currency. However, he feels Bitcoin is a better store of value than gold.

See Also: Why Is Ethereum Surging, Outperforming Bitcoin Today?

CME Group’s Plan: Further, Schlossberg said that derivative exchange CME Group Inc.’s CME plan to launch Micro Bitcoin futures contracts on its platform in early May could rattle bitcoin’s price even if investors like it or not.  The Micro Bitcoin futures will be one-tenth the size of one Bitcoin.

Schlossberg noted that Bitcoin topped out the last time CME launched bitcoin futures in late 2017.

Matt Maley, chief marketing strategist at Miller Tabak, said in the same “Trading Nation” interview that if Bitcoin moves to the downside below $52,000, its going to be a “big warning flag” and give the cryptocurrency its first lower low of the year.

Maley added it Bitcoin breaks above its recent highs of $61,000, it “should see another leg higher.” However, he agreed with Schlossberg that bitcoin is going to see a lot more big declines along its way in a very volatile session.

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