‘Bitcoin will go all the way to $160,000 this year,’ says Celsius CEO

The highs for Bitcoin are yet to be seen this year, says Alex Mashinsky.

Although the price of Bitcoin (BTC) continues to hover around $30,000, industry experts are noting that there is a bullish long-term view. 

To put this into perspective, Alex Mashinsky, chief executive officer and co-founder of Celsius – the centralized cryptocurrency lending platform – told Cointelegraph at Bitcoin 2021 in Miami that he sees Bitcoin reaching $160,000 this year, or possibly a bit lower. “We haven’t seen the highs yet for 2021,” Mashinsky said.

Mashinsky further remarked that the crypto market was bound for a correction, following Bitcoin’s recent all-time high of over $63,000:

When you go too high, too fast, you are bound for a correction. You can see my tweets in both March and February saying ‘we’re going to have a crash, we’re going to have a correction.’ I predicted $30,000. Bitcoin is like a spring – we stretch it too much and we put too much leverage. Too many people got greedy.

‘Elon Musk is manipulating the market’

In addition to discussing the price of Bitcoin, Mashinsky commented on Elon Musk’s recent tweets about Bitcoin. According to Mashinsky, Musk is not helping the crypto community, but rather manipulating the market. As such, he noted that Musk is simply a “tourist” in the land of crypto.

Mashinsky also noted that Tesla accepting Bitcoin payments will benefit Musk, but not consumers:

If the richest guy in the world is willing to exchange a Bitcoin for a Tesla, you have to ask yourself, who is getting the good deal? The minute you buy that Tesla, it's worth less than what you paid for it, but Bitcoin is going to continue to increase in value. So that transaction is good for Elon, but it's not good for you.

Celsius moves business operations to the U.S.

Roni Cohen Pavon, chief revenue officer at Celsius, further told Cointelegraph that Celsius will be moving its business operations from the United Kingdom to the United States in the coming months.

According to Cohen Pavon, the shift to the U.S. was promoted by the recent regulatory uncertainty in the U.K. for crypto companies. “We came to the conclusion that the U.K. is not the most stable place for Celsius in terms of regulations and geopolitical perspectives,” he said.

Although Celsius has had a physical office in the U.S. since 2019, Cohen Pavon explained that Celsius will now become a limited liability company, or LLC. “Nothing changes with our services – we are now an LLC instead of Celsius Network Limited. I believe the transition to engage as a U.S. entity will be completed by early or mid August.”

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