Bitcoin has moved well beyond a lower zone around $60,000 and is nearing $80,000, prompting a reassessment of veteran trader Peter Brandt’s forecast of $58,000 to $62,000.

On Aug. 23, blockchain outlet U.Today reported that bitcoin has recently rebounded sharply and traded above the downside target range Brandt presented in January.

Brandt said at the time he thought bitcoin could head to $58,000 to $62,000. He also acknowledged he could be wrong. The market then moved for a time in a way similar to his scenario. Bitcoin slid to $57,717 on July 1 and then traded sideways for several months in the $58,000 to $62,000 range. But the recent move has flipped the other way.

Bitcoin rebounded strongly last week. The market has become more volatile as it digested the impact of a sharp rise in Treasury yields and new policy ideas related to fiscal consolidation, and bitcoin rose steeply during that period. On Aug. 22 in particular, a large short squeeze forced bearish positions out of the market and pushed the price up to near $80,000.

The move over the last 5 trading days has also been steep. Bitcoin rose from a low of $62,679 on Aug. 17 to $79,500 on Aug. 21 before edging back. At the time of writing, bitcoin was trading at $76,569, down 0.84 percent over 24 hours, but posted a weekly gain of 21.56 percent. Bitcoin last traded at $80,000 in May.

The nature of the rebound is also being described as driven more by short covering than by chase buying. It means the rise widened as traders who had bet on a decline closed their positions, rather than a large inflow of new bullish bets. That makes it necessary to watch further to see whether the recent surge leads to a medium- to long-term trend change.

Brandt also explained directly the basis for his earlier bearish view. In a post last week on X, formerly Twitter, he said that for an inverse head-and-shoulders pattern in bitcoin, if the formation of the right shoulder is prolonged, the odds of ending with a downside move are 60-40, and the trend at the time also leaned lower. But after a bottom pattern was completed, he partially changed his stance. He wrote: "Like it or not, I bought at the breakout zone."

On the recent price action, he also mentioned technical indicators again. Brandt revisited a "price barrier" he used at bitcoin’s 2021 low and said, "We are back at that point." It means a technical zone that worked at a past low is again becoming a baseline for market judgment.

It is hard to conclude Brandt’s forecast was completely wrong. Bitcoin did trade for a time within the $58,000 to $62,000 range he presented, and in early July it also printed a lower price. But the recent rebound has shifted the market’s center of gravity back upward. In this situation, whether bitcoin can hold the $80,000 level even after short covering, and whether the new technical bottom signal Brandt has cited turns into a trend, are emerging as the next points to watch.