A familiar voice is back with a familiar and controversial call on bitcoin .
Mike McGlone, senior commodity strategist for Bloomberg Intelligence, reiterates that bitcoin could go down to $10,000.
But this time he’s framed it with a very clear line in the sand: $75,000.
If bitcoin decisively recovers and holds that level, it breaks the bearish thesis. If it can’t, McGlone’s view is that the path of least resistance is significantly lower, with prices falling all the way to $10,000, the level last seen in early 2020.
The $10,000 magnet
McGlone’s uber bearish forecast of a crash to $10,000 is not new. It’s been circulating for weeks, and it’s based more on market structure than short-term catalysts.
The cryptocurrency spent a long stretch hovering around $10,000 before the massive wave of fiat liquidity hit the markets following the coronavirus-induced 2020 crash. The era of zero interest rates, stimulus checks and aggressive liquidity easing by central banks sparked unprecedented risk-taking across all corners of the financial markets. It played a big role in lifting BTC permanently above $10,000.
“Prior to history’s biggest money pump in 2020-21, Bitcoin was hovering around $10,000, and it may be coming back. Around $10,000 is also the first-born crypto’s most traded price since 2017, when futures launched,” noted McGlone on LinkedIn.
With that era of abundant liquidity now behind us, McGlone suggests bitcoin could return to what he considers its equilibrium price — around $10,000.
According to him, $10,000 has been the most traded price zone since 2017, when CME futures began trading. In other words, $10,000 isn’t just a round number — that’s where a huge amount of historical volume sits.
McGlone also points to the explosive growth of the crypto market as a potential drag on bitcoin. In 2017, bitcoin pretty much defined the space, but today millions of tokens are competing for attention and draining capital away from the industry leader. In his view, that increase in supply has become a structural headwind rather than a tailwind.
“Unlimited crypto supply and use-case rivals are Bitcoin headwinds,” McGlone said on LinkedIn, adding that stablecoins represent “the most enduring trend” in crypto. He expects ether to become bigger than ether and eventually bitcoin.
“I expect the ‘flip’ to continue, with Tether’s AUM topping Ethereum in 2026 and eventually Bitcoin,” he said.
The void level of $75,000
McGlone’s bearish forecast hinges on prices staying below $75,000. This level has been an important turning point for market trends over the past 12 months. The March-April 2025 slide ran out of steam to around $75,000, while the early 2024 rally stalled there. Furthermore, $75,000 corresponds to important Fibonacci retracement levels.
Think of it as a market judgment threshold. A sustained move above that would suggest that bitcoin has re-established strong structural demand, ending the downtrend that began at the peak in October above $126,000. This would mean that institutional flows, macro conditions, or both are strong enough to override his return thesis.
Fail to get there — or get rejected again — and the argument reverses: bitcoin may still be trapped in a prolonged decline to $10,000.
