Noted bitcoin analyst Fundstrat’s Thomas Lee, who is bullish on bitcoin’s price, was reported to have cut his forecast for the cryptocurrency from $25,000 to a price above $20,000. CCN reported that Lee was targeting a bitcoin price of $22,000 for bitcoin by the end of this year. But he has since doubled down on his original price forecast. In a CNBC interview in the evening, Lee said he may have “misspoke a little bit”.

Lee had previously argued that regulatory uncertainty and expiration of futures contracts (which prompted massive selloffs by futures investors who have shorted bitcoin) were responsible for bitcoin’s downturn.

Increased Mining Costs Translate To Bump In Bitcoin Price

After surging to almost $20,000 last year, bitcoin has been in the doldrums for most of this year. It is off by 70% from its price at the start of this year as governments and regulatory agencies have cracked down on the ecosystem for cryptocurrencies.

The paucity of announcements from the crypto community has further added to the bleak outlook. For example, Lee had forecast a bump in bitcoin’s prices during Consensus, the cryptocurrency industry’s largest gathering of professionals. But the rise failed to occur. Appearing on CNBC later, Lee said that the announcements (made during Consensus) fell short and that there was “slight negative tilt” to prices due to regulatory uncertainty.    

This time around, he is predicting a jump in bitcoin prices due to miners.

According to him, bitcoin prices are typically double its mining costs. Currently the cost to mine a single bitcoin is $7,000, he said. “And the difficulty (for solving puzzles to win bitcoin) is rising. So by the end of the year, it’s going to be $9,000,” he said. As of this writing, bitcoin is trading at $6,621.24, unchanged from its price 24 hours ago.

Based on Lee’s estimated costs, bitcoin mining is not a profitable operation for miners currently. He expects miners to drive up prices for the cryptocurrency in order to generate profits for their operations.    

He told CNBC that bitcoin was a “multidecade” story. “I did wireless [research] in the 1990s.I saw 20 years of mobile and internet convergence. To me, this is not that different in terms of how an industry has changed over time,” he said.