Bloomberg Intelligence’s Mike McGlone appeared to walk back his $10,000 forecast for bitcoin, instead highlighting $28,000, after being challenged on social media and accused of being an alarmist whose “nonsensical” forecasts put real capital at risk.
Earlier this week, McGlone warned that collapsing crypto prices could signal broader economic stress and that bitcoin could return toward $10,000 if US stocks peak and recession follows. He framed the token as a high-beta risk asset, vulnerable to a collapse in the post-2008 “buy the dip” regime.
But in a subsequent post on X, McGlone pointed to $28,000 as a more likely level based on historical price distribution, a notable shift from his earlier base case. He also said his analysis “suggests why you shouldn’t buy bitcoin or most risk assets.”
His upward correction also followed being challenged to a debate by market analyst and AdLunam co-founder Jason Fernandes on X and LinkedIn posts.
Fernandes, whose LinkedIn challenge was liked but not accepted by McGlone, told CoinDesk that his broader criticism still stands even after the Bloomberg analyst revised his objective. “Obviously $28K is more realistic than $10K,” Fernandes said. “Proportionally fewer things have to go wrong for $28K than $10K.”
Mati Greenspan, a market analyst and Quantum Economics founder, said $28,000 was still unlikely, “but in markets we never rule anything out.”
Greenspan had also called out McGlone in a post on X after his lower forecast, saying, “Mr. @mikemcglone11 would have you believe that an asset with trillions of dollars in monthly volume could crash to a market cap of 200 billion.” He said the forecast was “literally nonsense.”
Fernandes previously estimated a more likely reset in the $40,000 to $50,000 range without a systemic liquidity shock. He noted that $28,000 now sits closer to his lower limit than McGlone’s original call. “It is worth mentioning that he has adjusted his near-term outlook closer to my low end than his previous prediction,” Fernandes said.
At stake in the debate is more than price targets. Fernandes said that deterministic, alarmist framing can significantly affect positioning and put “real capital at risk,” especially in reflexive markets like crypto.
