Brandt says Bitcoin but to backside, Polymarket sees hope: Commerce Secrets and techniques

Veteran dealer Peter Brandt, who beforehand tipped that Bitcoin might fall as little as $60,000 in 2026, says the market seemingly hasn’t bottomed but.

“Actual backside won’t happen till October 2026,” Brandt tells Journal.

In December, Brandt advised Cointelegraph that, with Bitcoin buying and selling close to $88,000, he was concentrating on a third-quarter 2026 backside round $60,000. Simply over a month into 2026, on Feb. 6, Bitcoin slid to roughly $62,700. Now, Brandt says the market might flush even decrease this yr.

“It’s truly spooky to me that Bitcoin has been really easy to forecast,” he says.

“The cyclic and parabolic conduct of Bitcoin certainly can not proceed to be so predictable. I simply suppose there must be a shock to the repeating nature of value discovery,” he provides.

Brandt says within the close to time period, the worth might chop “upwards,” however Bitcoin can also fall into the excessive $50,000s.

Crypto analyst Anup Dhungana lately warned in an X submit that it’s going to take “a very long time” for Bitcoin to get well to its all-time excessive of $126,000, which it reached in October 2025.

Ether might chop round $2,000 for a short time: Arthur Hayes

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes is bracing for extra sideways chop in Ether over the close to time period.

“ETH, similar to Bitcoin, will chop round these ranges till USD liquidity will increase,” Hayes tells Journal.

Ether is buying and selling at $1,941 as of publication, down 41.65% over the previous 30 days, in line with CoinMarketCap.

Nonetheless, the founding father of MN Buying and selling Capital, Michaël van de Poppe, believes Ether presents a robust shopping for alternative.

Van de Poppe stated in a latest X submit, “I don’t know a greater alternative to be taking a look at Ethereum.” He pointed to stablecoin transactions rising 200% over the previous 18 months.

“Worth follows narrative,” he stated, pointing to the same occasion unfolding in 2019.

Ether has attracted noticeably fewer daring value predictions from crypto analysts on social media currently.

Clearly, that hasn’t stopped the standard bulls from worshipping the asset. BitMine chair Tom Lee doubled down in an X submit on Thursday, calling Ethereum “the way forward for finance.”

Crypto market members are “fiercely bearish,” says Santiment

Crypto market members will not be feeling nice concerning the market’s prospects as the brand new yr kicks off, in line with crypto sentiment platform Santiment.

“Crowd sentiment is fiercely bearish,” Santiment stated in a latest report.

Santiment, utilizing its social media monitoring knowledge on bullish and bearish feedback from a variety of vetted crypto accounts, stated the ratio of bullish to bearish feedback has “collapsed.”

“Traditionally, markets are inclined to backside and bounce precisely when the group turns into satisfied costs will fall additional, just like the mid-November crash,” Santiment stated.

Whereas it might appear to be everybody out there is freaking out, Santiment, taking a look at historical past, says it might be extra of a constructive signal.

“Excessive negativity is commonly a bullish sign,” Santiment says. “When the group is satisfied costs will go decrease, it’s typically the time to start out searching for lengthy entries,” Santiment provides.

In that case, we’re set for an enormous bull market, as sentiment is dire.

The Crypto Worry & Greed Index, which measures total crypto market sentiment, has spent a lot of the yr caught in “worry” and “excessive worry” territory.

On Friday, it printed an “excessive worry” studying of 9, signalling that market members stay extremely cautious about deploying capital into crypto.

In the meantime, CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index is flashing a “Bitcoin Season” studying of 28 out of 100. The indicator flips between “Altcoin Season” and “Bitcoin Season” relying on how the highest 100 altcoins have carried out towards Bitcoin over the previous 90 days.

What are the prediction markets saying?

Prediction market members are majority bearish within the quick time period, with small hopes that the market will see robust upward development by the tip of this yr.

The chances of Bitcoin ending February beneath $60,000 are at 41% on Polymarket, however the second-highest odds are that Bitcoin will reclaim $75,000 by the tip of February at 29%. So, there’s nonetheless hope amongst a big minority.

Long run, Bitcoin has a 23% probability of reclaiming the $120,000 degree in 2026, with only a 10% probability of the asset reaching above $150,000.

Pundits predict the very best month for Bitcoin shall be December, with 21% odds, and that the worst month has already handed in January. This goes towards Bitcoin’s historic common efficiency over its best-performing months since 2013, with September the worst-performing month and November the best-performing month, in line with CoinGlass.

In the meantime, prediction merchants are assigning a 23% probability of ETH falling to $1,600, and even larger odds at 76% that it’s going to fall to $1,500 in some unspecified time in the future in 2026. Ether’s lowest print of the yr to date was $1,821 on Feb. 6.

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Ciaran Lyons

Ciaran Lyons is a Cointelegraph employees author masking cryptocurrency markets and conducting interviews inside the digital asset trade. He has a background in mainstream media and has beforehand labored in Australian broadcast journalism, together with roles in nationwide radio and tv. Previous to becoming a member of Cointelegraph, Lyons was concerned in media tasks throughout information, documentary, and leisure codecs. He holds Solana, Ski Masks Canine, and AI Rig Advanced above Cointelegraph’s disclosure threshold of $1,000.