Bloomberg commodity strategist Mike McGlone has issued a bearish outlook for Bitcoin, warning that the price could fall to $50,000 in 2026, even as gold continues its strong rally.
After surging about 60% in 2025, gold has extended its gains into 2026, while liquidity in Bitcoin appears to be drying up. McGlone said on X that BTC could revisit the $50,000 level as selling pressure builds, noting that although stable equity markets might limit the downside, any stock market volatility could hit risk assets like crypto even harder.
He also pointed to gold’s standout performance last year — its strongest alpha capture since 1979 — as a potential red flag for digital assets. In a previous warning, McGlone suggested Bitcoin could even fall as much as 90% to around $10,000 amid growing competition from other cryptocurrencies.
Despite supportive macro conditions, including the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates to their lowest point in three years, Bitcoin is still trading roughly 30% below its October peak of $126,000.
Adding to the cautious tone, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju said capital inflows into Bitcoin are slowing rapidly, hinting that the market may be entering a long consolidation phase. He explained that liquidity is now spread across more channels than in past cycles, making timing less predictable. Ju also noted that long-term institutional holders have changed the usual whale-to-retail selling patterns, and he does not expect treasury-focused firms like Strategy to sell off major portions of their holdings.
Instead, he says much of the capital is rotating into equities and commodities, particularly gold and silver. Still, Ju does not foresee a deep crash of more than 50% from Bitcoin’s all-time highs, unlike previous bear markets.
At the same time, interest in Bitcoin-related innovation remains strong. Bitcoin Hyper, a new Layer-2 scalability platform, has raised more than $30 million in its presale. The project aims to speed up transactions, reduce fees, and ease congestion on the Bitcoin network, while opening the door for more DeFi applications to be built around BTC.