Grayscale's Zach Pandl stands by $58K as bitcoin's bottom, says clients get 'green light'
Grayscale keeps its call that bitcoin bottomed near $58,000
Grayscale's head of research, Zach Pandl, said the roughly $58,000 low that bitcoin reached around June 30 is still his view for the bottom of the current bear-market phase. A bear market is a long stretch of falling prices.
Pandl said the asset manager is now telling its clients to put money into the asset class. He spoke to The Block's Gareth Jenkinson in an interview at Avalanche Summit in New York.
"We have stuck our neck out over the last couple of months and attempted to call the bottom at 58K at the end of June," Pandl said. "That would still be my view that that was the bottom for this bear market phase."
Bitcoin was trading above $76,000 early Thursday, up 0.8% over 24 hours, according to The Block's bitcoin price page. It is still about 39% below its record high of around $126,000.
Key points
- Pandl says the roughly $58,000 low around June 30 remains his bottom call for this bear-market phase.
- Grayscale says it is advising clients to allocate to crypto, which Pandl described as giving the "green light."
- Bitcoin traded above $76,000 early Thursday and remains about 39% below its record high of around $126,000.
- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on Sept. 10 that bitcoin has bottomed for the current cycle.
- Pandl also discussed Zcash, which Grayscale has offered through an investment product for about nine years.
The three checks behind the green light
Pandl said Grayscale uses a three-part framework when judging whether clients should allocate to bitcoin: the long-term structural trend, the stage of the market cycle, and the macroeconomic backdrop.
He said the firm sees all three as having cleared the bar. He pointed to continued adoption of digital assets and digital scarcity, a market that has already passed through a bear phase, and the wider macro picture.
"In my view, you can check all of those boxes today," Pandl said. "So we are certainly giving the green light to our clients."
Coinbase's Brian Armstrong made a similar call
The bottom call follows similar commentary from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who said on Sept. 10 that in his view bitcoin has bottomed for the current cycle. Armstrong also said he expects a two-year upward trend leading into the next halving, an event that cuts the rate at which new bitcoin is created.
What Pandl says about Zcash
Pandl contrasted bitcoin with Zcash, a cryptocurrency that Grayscale has offered through an investment product for about nine years. His case for Zcash rests on what he described as a missing privacy layer across digital currencies.
"Bitcoin needs a privacy layer, digital currencies need a privacy layer, Bitcoin is missing that," he said.
He said different blockchains make different design choices for different users, and that Zcash puts privacy first at the cost of some of the auditability that bitcoin's transparent design offers.
Pandl said Zcash sits in an "underutilized, under-explored design space" rather than competing directly with bitcoin. He also pointed to growing attention on privacy as artificial intelligence becomes more powerful, saying Zcash gives investors one way to express a view on personal and financial privacy.
What is confirmed
The comments from Pandl are on the record, made in an interview with The Block at Avalanche Summit in New York. It is confirmed that Grayscale has offered a Zcash investment product for about nine years, according to Pandl. The bitcoin price figures come from The Block's own price page.
What is still unclear
The $58,000 bottom is Pandl's forecast, not a settled fact. Whether that low really marked the end of the bear phase can only be known later. The same applies to Armstrong's view on a two-year upward trend. Both are opinions about where the market is heading, and the article does not present them as confirmed outcomes.
Why the call matters to Grayscale's clients
Grayscale is an asset manager, and Pandl said the firm is now steering clients toward holding crypto. For those clients, the message is that the firm's own checklist for allocating to bitcoin has been met in its view. The call is a judgement about market conditions, and bitcoin is still far below its record high, which the source notes.
