Majority of crypto investors expect prices to plunge than rebound, survey says

Bitcoin is more likely to plummet to $10,000 than soar again above $30,000 following the recent downturn in the market, said the results of a survey published on July 11.

According to the latest MLIV Pulse survey, Bitcoin is more likely to tumble to $10,000 than it is to rally back to $30,000, said 60% of the 950 investors who responded to the survey, while 40% saw it going the other way.

The lopsided prediction underscores how bearish investors have become. The crypto industry has been rocked by troubled lenders, collapsed currencies, and an end to the easy money policies of the pandemic that fueled a speculative frenzy in financial markets.

According to data compiled by CoinGecko, some $2 trillion has vanished from the market value of cryptocurrencies since late last year.

Notably, retail investors were more apprehensive about cryptocurrencies than their institutional counterparts, with almost a quarter declaring the asset class to be garbage. Professional investors were more open-minded toward digital assets.

Overall, this sector remains a polarizing one: while some 28% of the overall respondents expressed strong confidence that cryptocurrencies are the future of finance, 20% said they’re worthless.

“It’s very easy to be fearful right now, not only in crypto but generally in the world,” said Jared Madfes, partner at Tribe Capital, a venture capital firm. He noted that the expectations for a further drop in Bitcoin reflect “people’s inherent fear in the market.”

Likely, the crypto crash is to put further pressure on governments to step up regulations of the industry. Such supervision is seen as positive by the majority of respondents since it could improve confidence and lead to broader acceptance among institutional and retail investors.

Probably, government intervention will also be welcomed by consumers who suffered the collapse of stablecoin TerraUSD and troubled middlemen like Celsius Network and broker Voyager Digital Ltd.

But neither the recent price drops nor the potential rivals from central banks (CBDCs) are expected to significantly upend the industry by dethroning the two dominant tokens, Bitcoin and Ether. A majority of respondents anticipate that one of those two will remain a driving force in five years even while a significant share sees central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) taking on a key role.

“Bitcoin still is powering large parts of the cryptoverse, while Ethereum is losing its lead,” said Ed Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda Corp., a foreign-exchange broker.

Regarding nonfungible tokens (NFTs), there was a broader consensus. The overwhelming majority of those surveyed consider them to be just art projects or status symbols, with only 9% seeing them as an investment opportunity.

As The Post reported in May, a recent crash in crypto prices has triggered panic among average investors who poured their savings into bitcoin – with some fearful that the downturn would cost them their homes.

The onset of “crypto winter” has also triggered a liquidity crisis among prominent trading and lending platforms in the sector, some of which have already imploded or, like BlockFi, were forced to seek outside funding to stay afloat.