By Divya Chowdhury and Lisa Pauline Mattackal
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Bitcoin's price could breach $170,000 next year, driven by demand for newly listed exchange traded-funds and April's halving event, hedge fund SkyBridge's Anthony Scaramucci said in an interview on Monday.
"If bitcoin's at $45,000 on the halving, where it roughly is right now, it'll be $170,000 by mid- to late 2025," the SkyBridge founder and managing partner told the Reuters Global Markets Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.
The halving is a technical event that reduces the rate at which new bitcoin are released into circulation.
"Wherever the price is on the day of the halving in April, multiply it by four, and it'll reach that price in the next 18 months," Scaramucci said ahead of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting.
Bitcoin's price jumped above $49,000 last week as spot bitcoin ETFs received approval to trade on U.S. exchanges, but has since slipped back to around $42,000.
Scaramucci ascribed this decline to investors rotating out of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into the new funds, adding that it will likely take another eight to 10 trading days to see the impact of the newly listed funds on prices.
The landmark U.S. regulatory approval for spot bitcoin ETFs came after years of campaigning and applications from numerous firms, including SkyBridge, which saw an application rejected in 2022.
Skybridge also plans to launch a new fund that combines investments in crypto tokens and digital asset-focused venture capital, Scaramucci said, adding that he also expects a strong performance in structured credit.
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