Veteran trader Peter Brandt says he has pinpointed the exact day in 2026 when he expects Bitcoin to hit the bottom of this market cycle.
“I’ll go out on a limb and say we bottom on October 4th. So we’ll see,” Brandt tells Cointelegraph during an interview for Trade Secrets.Â
Of course, picking the exact day of a market bottom is a tough ask, but the 51-year trading veteran has held firm on his October prediction for Bitcoin’s cycle low for quite some time.
He says Bitcoin could fall below $50,000 and potentially into the high-$40,000 range before establishing what he expects will be the cycle low.
“Whether it’s at these kinds of current levels, or we crash through and really blow people out and move into the 50s, possibly the high 40s… You know, you have to remember that every major bear market in Bitcoin’s history since its inception has been an 80% plus correction. If you take Bitcoin’s high in the 120s, that would indicate that,” Brandt says.
Bitcoin is trading at $63,661 at the time of publication. Source: CoinMarketCap
Many traders believe Bitcoin’s current level around $60,000 could be the cycle bottom, but Brandt isn’t convinced. He says there is still too much optimism that prices will bounce back.
“Right now it’s neutral [sentiment]. Markets don’t bottom on neutral sentiment. Markets bottom on panic and volume.”
“The same people that are saying Bitcoin’s bottom at some point in time will be giving up on Bitcoin, throwing in the towel, and saying we’re done with Bitcoin, we’re going on to other assets, the Bitcoin phenomenon is done,” Brandt says.
Brandt says Bitcoin is a better bet than AI stocks
While some in crypto have blamed the AI boom for pulling money away from Bitcoin and the broader market, Brandt isn’t convinced the AI trade can keep climbing forever.
“I do not believe that somebody who goes all in on AI stocks right now will be very happy with that investment two, three years from now,” Brandt says, explaining that if he had $10,000 right now he would split it 50% between Bitcoin and precious metals.
“I think precious metals are closer to a bottom price-wise; I think Bitcoin may be closer to a bottom time-wise,” he says.
Brandt says Bitcoin won’t reach its cycle peak until 2029, forecasting a price between $250,000 and $300,000. If he’s right, Bitcoin would have just a year to climb from that range to the far more ambitious $1 million target projected by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood for 2030.
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