Wall St. Analyst Tom Lee ‘Pleasantly Surprised’ by Bitcoin’s Low Volatility

Tom Lee, the founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors and a well-known bitcoin bull, has recently revealed that he is “pleasantly surprised” by bitcoin’s low volatility in light of the stock market’s recent swings, which saw major indexes drop over 4% in a day.

During an interview on CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box,’ Lee revealed his firm and its clients would’ve expected bitcoin’s volatility to be “much higher” during uncertain times in the equities markets. He was surprised as bitcoin has a relatively small market cap of $200 billion, compared to “close to $90 trillion of global assets that have seen a correction.”

Even as emerging markets stocks fell, he noted, bitcoin remained stable. Earlier this year, Lee argued bitcoin would end the year “explosively higher” thanks to a correlation with emerging markets.  When asked whether this is a good price point to enter the cryptocurrency markets considering the significant drop most cryptos have seen in the last 10 months, Lee stated:

I think that’s the other half of the equation. Bitcoin seems to have found a floor at $6,000 – we’ve been writing and speaking about how the break-even cost for bitcoin, from a mining perspective, is $6,000 and multiple times this year that price has held.

For bitcoin’s price to grow in a sustained way, the all Street analyst added, the cryptocurrency needs a few things to happen. Per Lee, it needs fiat currency inflows, as well as increased adoption from the general public.

Fiat inflows, he said, are set to come later this year as financial institutions are launching cryptocurrency-related products. Bakkt, the crypto platform launched by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), has revealed it will launch its physically settled daily bitcoin futures contracts on December 12.

Fidelity Investments, as CryptoGlobe covered, has announced the launch of a new company called Fidelity Digital Asset Services, set to offer institutional clients crypto custody and brokerage solutions.

In favor of a potential bitcoin bull run, he added emerging markets would need to stabilize – something that he expects will happen soon as they’re currently “severely oversold.” Lee noted he’s also surprised bitcoin has been holding on to its value, as the USD has been gaining strength.

Back in May, Lee maintained a $25,000 by year-end price prediction for bitcoin, and in September claimed ether would rally strongly to hit $1,900 by the end of the year. Currently, CryptoCompare data shows BTC is trading at $6,330 while ETH is at $197.

While the cryptocurrencies would need to see an impressive surge to reach Lee’s predictions, such movements aren’t unheard of. Using historical evidence the Wall Street analyst earlier this year found bitcoin investors see a full year’s gains in only nine days.