Veteran Trader Peter Brandt Sees Bitcoin rebounding to $250,000 in 2029, but only after the market completes a long bottoming process that could last until September 2026.
This prediction makes sense in the context of Bitcoin’s four-year mining reward halving cycle, which has been consistent enough to shape traders’ projections.
Historically, Bitcoin bull runs peaked around 16-18 months after the quadrennial mining reward halving, before falling into year-long bear markets. New uptrends then tend to start 12 to 18 months before the next halving.
This trend has continued over the most recent cycle, with bitcoin peaking in October 2025, approximately 18 months after the April 2024 halving, which reduced the BTC per block issued as rewards to miners from 6.25 to 3.125.
If the cycle continues, the bear market that began then is expected to bottom out about a year later, around October 2026, and then a new uptrend is expected to begin and could reach $250,000 by the end of 2029, again about 18 months after the April 2028 halving.
“I’m not calling for a low until September/October 2026. There is no need for the recent low to be penetrated. We could get a rally and then cut sideways down. Worst case scenario would be a return to the lower green banana skin that would be in the 50s, maybe 40s. Then take off for $250,000 and a high in late 2029,” Brandt told CoinDesk in an email.
Peter Brandt is a veteran commodities trader whose career spans nearly five decades, beginning in the 1970s in the futures markets. It began trading traditional assets such as agricultural commodities, metals and currencies, long before the rise of modern e-commerce or digital assets.
Brandt’s view contrasts with the consensus among crypto analysts, who say that the downtrend that began with the October peak near $126,000 ended in early February around $60,000, and that the rally since then marks the start of a new uptrend.
Bitcoin has risen more than 25% to $80,300 since early February, according to CoinDesk data.
Note that Brandt’s prediction that there will be no bottom until the end of the year does not necessarily imply a deeper downtrend that would push prices below the February low. As he noted, prices could instead move in a choppy pattern of ups and downs before finally forming a bottom.
Brandt stressed, however, that his projection depends entirely on the market continuing at its historic pace. If price action deviates, he is willing to reassess rather than defend a broken thesis.
“As long as the market follows the script, I will stick to my projections. If at any point price discovery deviates from the script, I will be forced to revise my entire thinking. I will NOT be dogmatic about it like some are,” he said.
