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Cory Klippsten thinks Bitcoin is heading for pain before it gets better. The Swan Bitcoin CEO is calling a bottom near $57,000 sometime in October — then a recovery that could push prices toward $130,000 before the 2028 halving.
Klippsten’s read on the market leans heavily on historical patterns. Bitcoin peaked above $126,000 in early October 2025, and he sees the cycle playing out the way it pretty much always has: a bottom lands roughly one year after the top. That would put the floor around October of this year. He’s careful not to oversell the pattern — past trends aren’t guarantees — but he thinks the setup is clear enough to take seriously. Long-term holders are sitting on a significant chunk of Bitcoin’s total supply right now, and that kind of accumulation tends to put a floor under prices when sellers run out of steam. Whether that dynamic holds this cycle is unclear, but it’s the kind of detail Klippsten keeps pointing to.
A Second Voice, A Different Timeline
Not everyone sees the bottom the same way. Markus Thielen at 10x Research thinks it could come sooner. Per Thielen, if Bitcoin posts a monthly close above $63,000 in August, that alone could flip several indicators bullish and mark the end of the bear phase. That’s a notably different read — earlier, and tied to a specific price level rather than a calendar date. Both views are out there. Both can’t be right. No details yet on which scenario the broader market is pricing in.
Klippsten’s October call and Thielen’s August trigger sit at opposite ends of a short window. Traders watching this are basically getting two competing signals at once.
Altcoins Are “Basically Dead,” Klippsten Says
On altcoins, Klippsten didn’t soften his language. He called them “basically dead” as monetary competitors to Bitcoin. His view is that the future of crypto — including decentralized finance — runs through integration with traditional financial systems, not through altcoins carving out some parallel monetary universe. That’s a pretty stark position, and it’s worth sitting with for a second. It means he’s not just bearish on altcoin prices. He’s skeptical of the whole premise.
And yet one altcoin is having a genuinely good year.
Hyperliquid’s HYPE token is up 130% year-to-date. Bitcoin, by comparison, is down 28% over the same stretch. The gap is hard to ignore. Hyperliquid generated $5.9 million in revenue recently and currently ranks fifth in the DeFi sector by weekly earnings. That’s not a small number for a DeFi platform navigating what’s been a rough broader market. The platform’s performance is probably the clearest counterargument to the idea that nothing outside Bitcoin is working right now — though Klippsten would likely say it’s the exception that proves the rule.
He flagged Hyperliquid specifically as a noteworthy performer. So he’s not blind to the outliers. He just doesn’t think they change the big picture for altcoins overall.
Institutions Are Reshaping Who Wins in Altcoins
Wintermute’s July report adds a structural layer to all of this. The market maker found that institutional investors are fundamentally changing how altcoin markets behave. As institutions pour money in, they concentrate liquidity around a narrow set of favored assets. Everything else gets thinner markets, less activity, and weaker price action. The rallies that do happen are more selective — fewer coins moving, bigger moves in the ones that do.
That’s a shift from the older crypto cycle playbook, where altcoin seasons would lift most boats. Now it seems like institutions pick winners, and the rest of the market waits. Wintermute ties the change directly to the growing presence of professional money in crypto. The breadth just isn’t there anymore.
For retail traders who spread bets across dozens of smaller tokens hoping for a tide-rises-all scenario, that’s a real problem. The math on that strategy gets worse as institutions concentrate liquidity. Less popular assets see reduced activity, and that probably isn’t reversing anytime soon.
Klippsten’s broader point on regulatory integration fits into this picture too. He sees centralized crypto businesses eventually falling under traditional financial regulation — which would further tilt the playing field toward assets and platforms that institutions already know how to evaluate. Hyperliquid’s revenue numbers and DeFi ranking make it the kind of project that survives that kind of scrutiny. Most altcoins, in his view, won’t.
The HYPE token’s 130% gain year-to-date, against Bitcoin’s 28% loss, is the number that keeps coming back. It’s the kind of divergence that usually signals something specific about a project rather than a broader altcoin trend. And with $5.9 million in weekly revenue, Hyperliquid isn’t just riding hype — it’s generating real cash flow in a sector where most platforms can’t say the same.
Frequently Asked Questions
What price does Swan Bitcoin’s CEO predict for Bitcoin’s bottom?
Cory Klippsten predicts Bitcoin could bottom near $57,000 in October, roughly one year after its peak above $126,000 in early October 2025.
How has the Hyperliquid token performed compared to Bitcoin?
HYPE is up 130% year-to-date while Bitcoin has fallen 28% over the same period; Hyperliquid also generated $5.9 million in revenue recently, ranking fifth in DeFi by weekly earnings.
