U.Today - Tom Lee, Fundstrat Capital’s head of research and a regular contributor to CNBC’s Fast Money, has spoken to CNBC’s Squawk Box this time, talking about the prospects of Bitcoin for this year as 2025 continues to unfurl.

He stated that Bitcoin may hit the bottom this week, along with the equities market.

Bitcoin to do a lot better than $150,000 this year: Tom Lee

When talking about Bitcoin, Lee referred to a previous prediction by Fundstrat’s tech analyst, who said that the world’s largest cryptocurrency was poised to go down to $52,000 or at least to the $70,000 zone by mid-January, before it would resume rallying. The analyst called it a “cyclical downturn,” which may last until the end of March.

That prediction was made in the middle of January, a week before Donald Trump’s inauguration, when Bitcoin was changing hands at $96,500 after falling from $103,000 to $91,290 within just a couple of days.

Now, Tom Lee has stated that he expects Bitcoin “to do better than $150,000” this year. That aligns with Lee’s prediction for last year, when he said BTC would go over $100,000 and might reach $150,000 per coin.

The host, Joe Kernen, ironically asked if Lee meant $150,000 U.S. dollars, and not some other, cheaper, currency. Lee explained his expectation about Bitcoin soaring later in this year, saying that “it is a lot more widely held” now and “if Citadel starts trading it, it starts to have more broad acceptance.”

When talking about Citadel, Lee spoke about Citadel Securities, which is now reportedly considering becoming a major liquidity provider for large cryptocurrency exchanges. Previously, the company was rather cautious about entering the cryptocurrency space.

U.S. Strategic Crypto Reserve approved

On Sunday, U.S. president published an X post to spread the word about finally approving the creation of the strategic cryptocurrency reserve for the U.S.

At the core of this reserve will be the flagship cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, as well as Ethereum , XRP , ADA and SOL. The prices of these coins printed double-digit gains. BTC soared by 11.33% - from $85,600 to the $95,300 zone. By now, Bitcoin has rolled back a little, changing hands at $93,160.

XRP soared by 34.28%, hitting $3.02 for a brief moment and then crashing by 11%, and it is now trading at $2.69.

This article was originally published on U.Today