Bitcoin has taken a beating since its highs in November, but billionaire FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried thinks the pain may soon come to an end.
“I think we’ve seen the worst already in crypto. I think the carnage is mostly over. There’s a little more to come, but it’s not very bad,” he told Fortune for an exclusive cover story.
The world’s most popular cryptocurrency is down 67% from its high of about $69,000 last November and has been trading below $25,000 since mid-June. Even after a temporary jump to a 30-day high of $24,572 gave investors hope of an extended rally last week, Bitcoin was teetering at the $23,000 mark on Tuesday.
Despite Bitcoin’s setbacks, Bankman-Fried, commonly known as SBF, said it’s still possible the cryptocurrency could hit $100,000—although he’d be content with a much lower price.
“If you told me at the end of the year, Bitcoin is gonna be at $35K, I’d fucking take that,” Bankman-Fried told Fortune.
As leader of one of the biggest crypto exchanges, FTX, as well as the quantitative cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried has a lot of influence in the crypto sector, but what really makes or breaks the cryptocurrency’s price are macroeconomic factors outside his control, like high inflation and a possible recession, he said.
Barring a severe deterioration of the overall economy, crypto is in for “a really healthy and robust and pretty quick recovery, frankly,” Bankman-Fried said.
A drop to $21,000 isn’t likely to cause further carnage in the crypto sector, he said. But if other macro factors like a stock market rout, sky-high interest rates, and a recession hit the market, those effects are likely to flow through crypto.
“If the Nasdaq has another 25% left to drop, and if interest rates are actually going up to 7%, and if we’re going to be in a recession for two and a half years—in that world, I think Bitcoin might go down to $15K or $10K. Then there may be a new round of carnage that comes from that,” Bankman-Fried told Fortune.
To learn more about where SBF sees crypto prices going, as well as his insights on dealmaking and the future of the industry, be sure to check out the full Fortune conversation.
