Analyst Sees Bitcoin Flying Above $200,000 Before Next Mining Reward Halving

As the fourth Bitcoin halving scheduled for April draws closer, speculations are rife, with various industry experts sharing their predictions. Technical analyst Gert van Lagen believes there is a chance Bitcoin will climb to the $200,000 mark ahead of this highly awaited event.

Meteoric Rally Before Halving?

After investors “sold the news” of the approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), crypto spectators are looking for the next potentially bullish event to drive crypto prices higher.

Trader Gert van Lagen has shared a chart depicting the Elliott Wave technical analysis principle. For those unaware, the theory assumes that asset price movements can be forecasted by observing and identifying a repetitive wave pattern caused by investor psychology. In particular, it divides a price cycle into two sets — one comprised of five upward-trending waves and the other consisting of three corrective waves.

The Elliot wave pattern points to the possibility of BTC’s price hitting $200,000 before the upcoming halving — when the rate of new Bitcoins rewarded to miners is slashed in half. This bullish sentiment, bolstered by Elliot wave theory, suggests a strong accumulation phase by investors in the run-up to the seismic event.

Notably, after the April halving, miners will receive 3.125 BTC for each block they validate. That’s half the current rate of 6.25 BTC. The reason for this is to curb the supply of new coins entering the market.

Crypto Community Awaits Price Boom

Although the approval of the first-ever spot Bitcoin ETFs by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Jan. 10 was a landmark moment for the crypto industry, the BTC price has not reacted parabolically as many expected. In the immediate aftermath of the approval announcement, BTC rocketed to a two-year high near $49,000 before retracing.

Now, the world’s largest and oldest cryptocurrency by market cap is trading for around $42,962, up circa 0.7% on the day, per data from CoinGecko.

Nonetheless, pundits argue that the demand for ETFs among institutional players, coupled with Bitcoin’s imminent block subsidy halving, could propel the king cryptocurrency to new heights in the short- to mid-term.

Bitcoin bull and MicroStrategy executive chairman Michael Saylor previously said the combination of halving plus historic approval of spot BTC ETFs could result in a flood of investment money pouring into the market. And he has put his money where his mouth is: MicroStrategy now holds roughly $8 billion in Bitcoin.