Matt Hougan, the chief investment officer (CIO) of crypto asset management firm Bitwise, is highlighting a factor that could be bullish for Bitcoin (BTC).

In a new interview on the Unchained podcast, Hougan says demand for Bitcoin outstrips supply and this will drive the crypto king’s price up to around $200,000, a gain of 139% from the current level.

“New supply of Bitcoin is 165,000 Bitcoin. Last year exchange-traded funds (ETFs) bought half a million Bitcoin, corporations bought 350,000 Bitcoin…

…So there is much more sort of structural demand for Bitcoin than there is new supply. And what that means is existing holders have to sell. We saw existing holders sell at $72,000 from March to November before we ripped up to $100,000.

The reason I say $200,000 and not like $162,351 is because I think that’s the next level at which existing holders will be willing to sell. Because they’re behaviorally-driven humans and it’s a nice round number.

So I think once the macro market levels out, this fundamental demand-supply mismatch will force Bitcoin up and up and up till we shake Bitcoin loose from existing holders. Maybe they’ll shake it loose at $150,000. But I’m not sure. I think it could get all the way up to $200,000 by the end of this year.”

On where demand for Bitcoin is going to come from going forward, the Bitwise CIO says,

“I think governments will buy hundreds of thousands of Bitcoin over the next year. I think corporations, which bought 350,000 Bitcoin last year… …I think they will buy more Bitcoin this year than they bought last year. And I think hundreds of companies will do it.

And then I think institutional investors are recognizing that Bitcoin is now part of the global capital markets. And if you’re not at 1% Bitcoin, you’re effectively short against the global capital market benchmark. And so I think there are hundreds of billions of dollars of investment that need to come into Bitcoin just to level up to flat.”

Bitcoin is trading at $83,755 at time of writing.

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