Bitcoin was trading near $62,068 at press time, down 3.5% in the past 24 hours and still roughly 50% below its October 2025 peak of $126,000.
The extended slump is proving costly for companies that leaned hard into Bitcoin as a treasury asset.
Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), long known for its “never sell Bitcoin” stance, broke from that approach in 2026 with two separate Bitcoin sales.
Related: Billionaire who received Trump’s pardon predicts Bitcoin to $1 million
An economist weighs in on the road back
In a conversation with Natalie Brunell published on July 7, investment strategist and economist Lyn Alden laid out how she sees Bitcoin clawing its way back.
“I don’t think there’s anything coming to save Bitcoin,” Alden said.
She argued the asset first has to prove itself on fundamentals alone, as opportunistic buyers absorb cheap sats while leveraged positions get flushed out of the market.
Only after that shakeout, she said, does outside capital typically return, pulling in chartists, momentum traders and “FOMO traders” as the narrative shifts toward reclaiming prior highs.
Until that turn happens, Alden said Bitcoin’s case rests on being a highly liquid, permissionless store of value and she noted that sentiment this cycle has been notably weaker than during the 2022 bear market.
“I’ve seen way weaker sentiment this bear market than the 2022 bear market,” Alden added.
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A scientist takes aim at the 21 million cap
Separately, Zcash co-founder and StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson used a July 8 post on X to challenge one of Bitcoin’s foundational rules.
“Capping the supply of Bitcoin at 21M doesn’t make sense. Because over time, keys will be lost. In fact, as time goes to infinity, all keys will be lost.”
In place of the hard cap, Ben-Sasson proposed a fixed annual issuance rate of around 4%, which he said would track global population growth and keep the asset accessible to more people.
He added that the concern extends beyond scarcity to Bitcoin’s long-term security budget as mining rewards shrink.
Related: Nearly 40 million investors could face a crypto ban
This story was originally published by TheStreet on Jul 8, 2026, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: Original Article
