Bloomberg Intelligence’s Mike McGlone appeared to backtrack on his $10,000 forecast for bitcoin, instead highlighting $28,000 after being questioned on social media and accused of being an alarmist whose “nonsense” forecasts put real capital at risk.
Earlier this week, McGlone warned that the collapse in cryptocurrency prices could signal broader financial stress and that bitcoin could return to $10,000 if US stocks peak and a recession hits. He framed the token as a high-beta risk asset vulnerable to a failure in the post-2008 “buy the dip” regime.
But in a subsequent post on He also said his analysis “suggests why not buy bitcoin or most risk assets.”
His upward correction also came after being challenged to a debate by market analyst and AdLunam co-founder Jason Fernandes in posts on X and LinkedIn.
Fernandes, whose LinkedIn challenge was liked but not accepted by McGlone, told CoinDesk that his broader criticism still stands, even after the Bloomberg analyst revised his target. “Obviously $28,000 is more realistic than $10,000,” Fernandes said. “Proportionately, fewer things need to go wrong for $28,000 than for $10,000.”
Mati Greenspan, market analyst and founder of Quantum Economics, said $28,000 was still unlikely, “but in markets we never want to rule anything out.”
Greenspan had also criticized McGlone in a post on He said the forecast was “literally nonsense.”
Fernandes previously estimated a more likely reset in the $40,000 to $50,000 range in the absence of a systemic liquidity shock. He noted that $28,000 is now closer to his lower limit than McGlone’s original bet. “It’s worth mentioning that it has adjusted its near-term outlook closer to my lower end than its previous prediction,” Fernandes said.
More than price targets are at stake in the debate. Fernandes said a deterministic and alarmist framework can materially influence positioning and put “real capital at risk,” particularly in reflexive markets such as cryptocurrencies.
