According to the CEO of BitMEX, Arthur Hayes, the Bitcoin bear market could last until 2020.

Hayes believes that the current bear trend on the crypto market could last for an 18 month period until the middle of 2020. Despite these bearish calls, Hayes is still positive that the Bitcoin price in the long term could easily reach a new all-time high amongst supportive fundamental or regulatory developments.

Speaking at the Yahoo Finance UK event in London, the founder of Bitcoin Merchantile Exchange, focused on trading Bitcoin and other digital currencies, Arthur Hayes compared the current market with how the market was back in 2013 and suggested that the conditions would become worse before they would start to see improvements.

Hayes said:

“I’m just basing it off my previous experience. I started in bitcoin in 2013 when the price went from $250 to $1,300 and then from 2014 to 2015 was sort of the nuclear bear market. Price crashed, volume crashed — very, very difficult to make money.”

Hayes is one of the many crypto experts who has predicted pessimistic outlooks for Bitcoin and other virtual assets. Earlier he believes that Bitcoin would drop to $3,000 - $5,000 before a favourable regulatory decision would make the prices skyrocket.

Even though the predictions are a tad gloomy, he believes that the SEC’s decision to approve the Bitcoin ETF would trigger a sharp rally up to $50,000 before the end of the year.

“The market is blowing off some steam right now. I think the market is probably going through some healthy consolidation, but I do believe the long-term trend will be greater adoption of bitcoin and similar technologies.”

Mike Novogratz is a well-known optimist on Bitcoin and he has revised his bullish outlook in October saying that the coin would have a tough time getting back to the $9,000 mark by the end of the year. Previously, Novogratz even predicted the crypto to reach $40,000.

At the current time of writing, Bitcoin is in the green with a price of $6,390 which it has been hovering around for a while now. As said by

FXStreet

,

“a sustainable move higher will allow the coin to develop a more extended recovery towards the short-term target at $6,360, created by SMA50 (4-hour) and the lower border of the previous consolidation channel.”

What are your thoughts? How long do you think the bear market will last? Let us know what you think down below!