Grayscale's Pandl still sees bitcoin's $58K low as the bottom, gives clients 'green light'

Grayscale Head of Research Zach Pandl said bitcoin's roughly $58,000 low around June 30 remains his call for the bottom of the current bear-market phase, and that the asset manager is now advising clients to allocate to the asset class. 

"We have stuck our neck out over the last couple of months and attempted to call the bottom at 58K at the end of June," Pandl told The Block's Gareth Jenkinson in an interview at Avalanche Summit in New York. "That would still be my view that that was the bottom for this bear market phase."

The call aligns with similar commentary from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who stated on Sept. 10 his view that bitcoin has bottomed for the current cycle and he expects a two-year upward trend leading to the next halving.

Bitcoin was trading above  $76,000 early Thursday, up 0.8% over 24 hours, according to The Block’s BTC price page. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap remains about 39% below its record high of around $126,000.

Pandl said Grayscale uses a three-part framework when assessing whether clients should allocate to bitcoin. These include the long-term structural trend, the stage of the market cycle, and the macroeconomic backdrop.

The asset manager sees all three conditions as having cleared the bar, he said, pointing to continued digital-asset adoption and digital scarcity, the market having already passed through a bear phase, and the broader macro picture.

"In my view, you can check all of those boxes today," Pandl said. "So we are certainly giving the green light to our clients."

Grayscale on Zcash

Pandl also contrasted Bitcoin with Zcash, which Grayscale has offered through an investment product for about nine years.

His thesis for Zcash rests on what he described as a missing privacy layer across digital currencies. "Bitcoin needs a privacy layer, digital currencies need a privacy layer, Bitcoin is missing that," Pandl said.

He said different blockchains make different design choices for different users, with Zcash prioritizing privacy at the expense of some of the auditability offered by Bitcoin’s transparent design.

Pandl said Zcash occupies an "underutilized, under-explored design space" rather than competing directly with Bitcoin. He also pointed to growing attention to privacy as artificial intelligence becomes more powerful, saying Zcash offers investors one way to express a view on personal and financial privacy.