Fundstrat Global Advisors’ co-founder Thomas Lee has confessed that his recent prediction that the Consensus conference would cause a Bitcoin rally turned out to be incorrect. However, Lee has previously been accurate in his predictions of Bitcoin price increases. He argues that there are still significant hurdles for the cryptocurrency market to clear before traditional financial institutions are ready to accept it.

Thomas Lee’s recent forecast said that the Consensus conference, which took place during May 14 and 16 in New York City, would lead to a Bitcoin bull run that would dwarf similar Bitcoin price rallies of previous years. Lee based his prediction on the fact that a substantial part of the cryptocurrency community would gather in the same place. Lee argued that this, coupled with the dramatically increased attendance at the Consensus conference compared to last year, would serve to ”strengthen the crypto-community’s conviction”.

Nonetheless, it is now evident that Lee’s predictions were misguided. Ultimately, the cryptocurrency markets lost as much as 10% during the Consensus conference. Lee released a tweet on May 18 stating that in order for his predictions on a Bitcoin rally to come true, three conditions needed to be met. Firstly, institutional custody and tools in relation to cryptocurrency need to be solved, buy-ins from banks and investment managers need to be handled, and there is a need for increased regulatory clarity. Whilst Lee acknowledged that the Consensus conference saw some progress on support from banks and the development of institutional tools, this was not enough to warrant his promised ”Bitcoin rally”.

Even so, Fundstrat is still expecting Bitcoin to hit $25,000 by the end of this year. Moreover, Lee recently threw out a prediction that he expects the currency to be worth $36,000 by the end of 2019. Some may doubt Lee’s predictions following him falling short on his most recent ”Bitcoin rally” guideline. However, he still wields substantial influence among investors after successfully predicting the growth in cryptocurrency markets following the US tax day this April. Moreover, Lee recently held an open poll on his Twitter where he asked the community where they see the price of Bitcoin in June. The answer ended up being around $12,000, due to the solved tax issue and the potential influx of institutional investors into the cryptocurrency industry. Naturally, it remains to be seen whether these predictions pan out or if they will also miss their target – although it would seem far too early to judge Thomas Lee’s ability based on one missed prognosis.

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