Bitcoin has returned to a consolidation state as the macroeconomic dust settles in the coming days. The number one crypto by market capitalization rallied for most of January and is now entering a new month with market expectations of higher profits. 

As of this writing, Bitcoin (BTC) trades at $23,000 with sideways movement in the last 24 hours. The cryptocurrency still records some profits in the previous seven days at 2%. Other digital assets in the top 10 experienced similar price action except for Cardano (ADA) and Dogecoin (DOGE), which continue to see high profits over the same period. 

Per a recent report from Ark Invest, Bitcoin (BTC) recently experienced its second-worst price drawdown since its inception. The cryptocurrency lost over 70% of its value from an all-time high of $69,000, crashing into a two-year low at $15,800. 

This level coincides with the 2018 all-time high region that peaked at $20,000 and preceded a 77% drawdown to a $3,000 low. Bitcoin bounced into price discovery after experiencing this crash, suggesting that $15,800 will be critical support for future downside pressure. 

Ark Invest argues that Bitcoin is more robust today and has better fundamentals to continue its uptrend. The BTC Hashrate, the computational power generated by Bitcoin miners, reached an all-time high at 272 exahashes/second in its twelve consecutive years on the rise. 

The market cost basis for the BTC supply, the average price of the Bitcoin in circulation, stands at $393, almost three times its 2018 value. In addition, 66.5% of the cryptocurrency’s supply remained unmoved over the past year. 

In other words, long-term Bitcoin holders seem unwilling to move their coins to crypto exchanges to dump them in the market. In that sense, the long-term holder supply stands at 71% and has been increasing since December 10, 2017. 

All of these factors behind Ark Invest’s bullish thesis compound with the capitulation levels seen in the past two years. As in 2015 and 2017, these capitulation levels could coincide with another bull run. 

In the short term, Bitcoin will still face selling pressure from macroeconomic conditions, persistent inflation, and other global events. However, Ark Invest believes the cryptocurrency will become a central piece in global financial markets in the coming decade. 

As seen in the chart below, the investment firm has three targets for BTC in this period. In the bearish scenario, BTC will hit a price of $258,000 by 2030, and in the bull scenario, BTC could climb as high as $1.5 million per coin. 

These targets are derived from potential use cases for the cryptocurrency as a growing institutional investment and an alternative to gold, an economic and global payment settlement network, an emerging market currency, a corporate treasury, and others. 

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