Consumers are divided over bitcoin’s staying power, with about one-third expecting the world’s largest cryptocurrency to slide below US$20,000 by year end, according to a survey by Deutsche Bank.

That would slice approximately US$50,000 off the token’s current price, and take it back to levels last seen during a deep bear market in 2022. Just 10% of over 3,600 people surveyed saw bitcoin above US$75,000 by the end of December.

Some 40% of respondents were confident about bitcoin thriving over the next few years, but 38% expected it to disappear. At the same time, less than 1% considered crypto a fad, the survey conducted over March showed.

The original cryptocurrency traded 1.4% lower at about US$70,700 as of 7.50am on Tuesday in London. It achieved an all-time peak of US$73,798 in mid-March. Bitcoin’s 67% rise this year topped traditional assets like global stocks and gold.

A flood of inflows into three-month-old US spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds lifted the token and led supporters to argue that crypto demand will widen. Detractors say bitcoin has no intrinsic value, and is purely a speculative playground storing up an inevitable reckoning.

Bitcoin this month will undergo the so-called halving, a four-yearly event that slashes new supply of the token. Some view that as a bullish tailwind. 

“You are seeing a lot of continued traction that is coming into the market, because of the upcoming halving,” Victoria Bills, the chief investment strategist of Banrion Capital, said on Bloomberg Radio.

  - Bloomberg