Bookies see a nearly 60% chance of bitcoin sliding to $10,000 this year

Bitcoin to $10,000 in 2021? Some people are betting on it.

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Bets by oddmakers indicate they see an increasing likelihood that bitcoin will sink to $10,000 this year, according to US-Bookies.com, a betting news and data service.

Odds are 8-to-11, or a 57.9% implied probability, that the world's most traded cryptocurrency will continue to descend to a price not seen since October 2020, said the site, which reviews online sportsbooks in the US, in a notice this week.

The $10,000 level would represent a more than 70% drop from bitcoin's price on Friday, at around $37,310.

"The betting has shifted again, and the odds suggest that a slump below $10,000 now looks more likely than not this year, meaning the cryptocurrency could have further to fall," it said.

The odds of a drop below $10,000 have climbed since mid-April when they were at 4-to-1, or a 20% implied probability. At that time, bitcoin hit an all-time high of $64,804.72, coinciding with the trading debut of Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US.

But since the peak, the cryptocurrency has tumbled by more than 40%, hit by a number of regulatory threats from China and the US, including the US Treasury Department's plan to have cryptocurrency transfers of at least $10,000 be reported to the IRS. Bitcoin's value was also hurt after Tesla said it would stop taking the digital currency as payment for its electric vehicles, citing environmental concerns related to bitcoin mining.

Even more bearish views are expressed with 33-to-1 odds that bitcoin will slide below $1,000 this year, with that implied probability at 2.9% and not a likely scenario, said US-Bookies.com.

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