Tom Lee stands by $150,000 bitcoin forecast, says 10-year Mt. Gox overhang should disappear in second half

Published Mon, Jul 1 20248:14 AM EDTUpdated Mon, Jul 1 20248:54 AM EDT

Fundstrat's Tom Lee is standing by his $150,000 forecast for bitcoin despite recent weakness in the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin has been stuck in a tight trading range between $60,000 and $70,000 since it touched an all-time high of about $73,000 in March. At the end of June, it slid to the lower end of that range. "Bitcoin's probably suffering from Mt. Gox starting distributions in July – that was a huge overhang for many years," Lee told CNBC's " Squawk Box " Monday morning. "If I was invested in crypto, knowing that one of the biggest overhangs is going to disappear in July, I'd think it's a reason to actually expect a pretty sharp rebound in the second half." As a result, $150,000 for bitcoin is still within reach, Lee added. BTC.CM= 1M mountain Bitcoin's recent weakness On June 24, the trustee of the now defunct Mt. Gox crypto exchange, once the largest in the world, said it will begin repayments to creditors in July — 142,000 bitcoins worth $9 billion at today's prices — although it has an October deadline to do so. That spooked the market, with investors worried that creditors may soon sell some of that bitcoin, after waiting more than 10 years for a resolution with the exchange. Additionally, the U.S. and German governments sent large amounts of previously seized bitcoin to exchanges at the end of June, further driving the coin's recent weakness. Bitcoin rose 4% at one point over the weekend to begin July trading at about $62,000. Investors are still optimistic about the price of bitcoin, after it traded in a 20% range for several months last summer before eventually ripping higher. They also point out that bitcoin historically has approached new all-time highs about 18 months after its regular halving . This year's took place in April. On top of that, Lee highlighted that investors can't afford to miss just a handful of days in any year. Bitcoin "makes most of its gains [in] 10 days every year. If you take out the 10 best days in a single year, bitcoin actually has negative returns."