Bitcoin To $10,000? Bloomberg’s McGlone Says Brace For Impact

Bitcoin (BTC) may not be the safe-haven asset many investors believe it to be, at least according to Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Commodity Strategist Mike McGlone, who argues the next major market downturn could expose that weakness in dramatic fashion.

Specifically, McGlone outlined a bearish outlook for Bitcoin heading into 2026, warning that the asset could suffer deep losses amid a broader correction across risk markets, in an interview with David Lin streamed on December 17.

His base-case scenario envisions the world’s foremost cryptocurrency first retracing toward the $50,000 area before potentially sliding much further, with extreme downside targets near $10,000 if speculative excess fully unwinds. According to him:

“I think for Bitcoin, the first stop is around $50,000. (…) The first stop was around $50,000. I think it’s going to $10,000. (…) When gold grabs alpha like it did this year, that’s telling us something. That’s a warning, and I’m heeding the warning.”

McGlone’s thesis is rooted in structural and macroeconomic forces he believes are increasingly misaligned with crypto’s risk profile.

For the time being, Bitcoin is changing hands at $87,076.89, up 0.02% on the day, down 5.39% across the week, and accumulating a loss of 8.78% on its monthly chart, according to the latest data.

Why McGlone Thinks Bitcoin Isn’t ‘Digital Gold’

A central pillar of McGlone’s argument is that Bitcoin behaves less like a store of value and more like a high-beta speculative asset, often moving in lockstep with equities rather than acting as a hedge. 

Over longer timeframes, he points to Bitcoin’s strong correlation with stock indices, including small-cap benchmarks, as evidence that it trades more like leveraged tech than hard money.

Unlike gold, silver, or platinum, which have naturally constrained supplies, McGlone argues that Bitcoin exists within an ecosystem of effectively unlimited crypto issuance.

With tens of millions of digital assets now listed across markets, the scarcity narrative that once set Bitcoin apart has weakened, in his view, as capital continuously fragments across new tokens. As he further added:

“And that’s why I say you’re just supposed to shift over to risk-off assets like treasuries. To me, that’s the bias for next year, and I’m fearful that we might have a bit of a crash in the market.”

Cycle Fueled by Excess Now Facing Reversion

Furthermore, McGlone believes Bitcoin’s most recent peak was driven by a perfect storm of speculative catalysts, including exchange-traded fund (ETF) approvals, the halving narrative, record stock market highs, and renewed political optimism around crypto regulation. While powerful, he sees these forces as temporary accelerants rather than durable foundations.

“The performance of the broad crypto market and Bitcoin has been horrible for over a year now, with high volatility, poor performance, and people say, you know, that’s your typical risk managers looking at this and saying ‘No, sorry, thank you. Yeah, it had a great run before it got launched in ETFs, in the mainstream.”

He also warns that crypto downturns often precede broader risk-asset declines. Historical patterns show that sharp rollovers in Bitcoin-linked equities and leveraged crypto plays tend to precede weakness in traditional markets, a signal McGlone says investors should not ignore.

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