Bloomberg Intelligence senior strategist Mike McGlone has renewed one of the market’s most aggressive Bitcoin bear calls, arguing that $10,000 remains the asset’s “fundamental anchor.” In the latest Forbes Digital Assets report, he said a failure to reclaim and hold $75,000 would leave the door open to a historical breakdown toward that level.
Why McGlone still points to $10,000
McGlone’s case rests on market structure rather than current spot support. He said $10,000 was the heaviest trading zone since Bitcoin futures began trading in 2017, making it the strongest long-term area of consensus in his framework. From that view, the rally in 2020 and 2021 was driven by the largest monetary expansion on record, pushing Bitcoin far above its long-term mean.
That liquidity backdrop has changed. McGlone argues that as excess liquidity fades, mean reversion pressure returns, and crypto assets are no longer protected by the same flood of capital that fueled the prior bull market. He also flagged another structural issue: the continued launch of new tokens, which in his view dilutes value density across the broader crypto market and makes it harder for Bitcoin to stay insulated in a thinner capital environment.
$75,000 becomes the level to watch
In his latest warning, $75,000 stands out as the key threshold. If Bitcoin cannot recover and defend that area, he said the path to a much deeper selloff cannot be ruled out. The call is consistent with his repeated bearish stance over the past year, a record that has turned him into a frequent target of criticism across crypto circles.
That reaction has been sharp. Many traders point to earlier forecasts from McGlone that did not play out as expected, leading some in the community to mock him as a perma-bear whose Bitcoin calls keep missing the market.
Other analysts see the downside much higher
Critics of the $10,000 thesis usually focus on two arguments. One is scale: after Bitcoin’s market structure matured, a fresh drawdown of roughly 90% is seen by many as far harder to produce than in earlier cycles, especially if it would require sustained selling measured in hundreds of billions of dollars. The other is ownership change. Since the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs, institutions and retirement funds have taken a larger share of holdings, and those investors are widely viewed as less reactive than retail traders during sharp market stress.
Even among bearish analysts, McGlone’s target remains an outlier. The report said the more conservative lower-end view in the broader bearish camp sits around $38,000. AdLunam analyst Jason Fernandes said even a move back to $28,000 would likely require a major contraction in global liquidity rather than a base-case setup. PrimeXBT analyst Jonatan Randin offered a milder bearish path, saying Bitcoin could drift toward a $30,000 to $40,000 accumulation zone, while a stable backdrop could also support trading in the $60,000 to $70,000 range.