It certainly was a difficult year for the Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) price in 2022.
As we covered here, rising interest rates, tech selloff, and numerous industry scandals and collapses led to the world's largest cryptocurrency losing approximately 65% of its value.
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Will things be better for the Bitcoin price in 2023?
While forecasting the Bitcoin price seems like an impossible task, that hasn't stopped a number of analysts from giving it a shot.
Unsurprisingly, these analysts have vastly different expectations for the cryptocurrency.
For example, according to CNBC, Bitcoin bull Tim Draper from Draper Fisher Jurvetson believes the cryptocurrency could climb almost 1,400% to US$250,000 in 2023.
In fact, Draper suspects that the Bitcoin price could rise to this level by the middle of the year. Though, it is worth noting that he made the same prediction for 2022, which clearly didn't eventuate.
Draper expects female investors to be the key driver of this gain. He told CNBC:
My assumption is that since women control 80% of retail spending, and only 1 in 7 bitcoin wallets are currently held by women that the dam is about to break.
Bitcoin bears
The team at Standard Chartered isn't buying into this. It has suggested that the Bitcoin price could tumble by over two-thirds to US$5,000 in 2023.
It warned that rising bond yields and a plunge in technology stocks could lead to an acceleration of the Bitcoin selloff and cause further bankruptcies and collapses in the crypto world.
This view is shared with Mark Mobius from Mobius Capital Partners. He warned that higher interest rates will reduce the appeal of Bitcoin and is expecting the cryptocurrency to fall by a third to US$10,000 in 2023. Mobius told CNBC:
With higher interest rates, the attraction of holding or buying Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies becomes less attractive since just holding the coin does not pay interest.
Time will tell which analysts make the right call.
