Leah Wald told members of the press she expects bitcoin to make a steep move before year end. Her baseline? The vaunted $175,000 mark – a price she called a conservative read compared to some loftier forecasts.
The market has already surprised a lot of people — bitcoin hit about $124,000 recently — so big swings are not impossible.
According to Wald, part of the push comes from big money moving in. She pointed to companies like BlackRock and high-profile investors such as Cathie Wood, and she referenced how comments from leaders like Larry Fink have shifted conversations.
The industry’s own scars are still visible. After the FTX collapse many firms were de-banked and trust took a hit.
But Wald argues that the picture has changed: banks and asset managers are opening doors again, and that makes it easier for large managers to put serious capital into crypto. That doesn’t erase risk though, but it does change how big investors approach the market.
Based on reports, some forecasts stretch far beyond this year. Wald mentioned projections showing bitcoin at $1 million by 2030, a level that would dwarf current prices.
Those long-range calls are driven by assumptions about adoption, limited supply and the role bitcoin could play in institutional portfolios. Whether reality matches those models is another question.
Shorter-term math matters too. If bitcoin were to reach $175,000 before year end, that would be a rapid climb from recent levels around $124,000.
Traders and managers watching volatility know such moves can happen, but they also know the path is rarely straight. Expectations, flows, and news — all of it moves markets fast.
Wald says crypto is no longer just about quick gains. She sees a bigger change: mainstream finance is being rebuilt on blockchain tools, she said, and that shift is moving the conversation away from short-term trading toward how the system is built and run.
Nation-states thinking about adoption and big asset managers planning custody services are part of that picture, she added, and those pieces matter for how prices form.
Featured image from Meta, chart from TradingView
