Bitcoin Nears $74K: Van De Poppe Sees Buying Opportunity, Peter Schiff Warns Of Historic Losses

• Goldman Sachs expects the Fed to raise rates by a quarter point in December, then again in March 2027.
• Goldman's revision followed October's consumer price index, which rose 0.4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• A few analysts saw the slide in Bitcoin's price as a correction.

Bitcoin’s price (BTC) fell below the $74,000 range early on Wednesday, marking its lowest level since August, as Goldman Sachs pointed to the possibility of another Fed interest rate hike. Some analysts, however, say this could be a temporary pause or a correction in the bull market.

Goldman expects the Fed to raise rates by a quarter point in December, then again in March 2027, according to a note from the bank's chief U.S. economist, David Mericle. The March move would be the third hike of the current cycle, and Mericle said it could come as early as January, though March is slightly more likely. The bank also pushed back its forecast for the first rate cut by a quarter, to December 2027.

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Hot Inflation Drives Goldman's Call

Goldman's revision followed October's consumer price index (CPI), which rose 0.4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Goldman described it as a third straight month of hotter-than-expected inflation. Energy prices rose 0.7% in October after a 5.2% jump in September, while food prices climbed 0.5%, BLS data showed. Shelter costs, which rose 0.3%, accounted for over 30% of the monthly increase.

Goldman expects most Fed officials to signal a third hike in December's dot plot, the chart of policymakers' rate projections. Still, the bank said that it expects inflation to be "meaningfully lower" by the end of 2027 as pressures from tariffs, energy and AI fade.

Analysts Look Past The Drop

Analyst Michaël van de Poppe said, "In a bull market, you'll be required to go through multiple corrections. This is one of them." Van de Poppe added that he had bids placed at lower levels to accumulate Bitcoin. To turn bullish again, he said, he wanted to see "$75,000 being reclaimed for support."

Data also pointed to fading pressure from sellers, as short-term holders sent about 32,695 BTC held at a loss to exchanges in November, according to a CryptoQuant analyst. That fell to about 9,900 BTC on Monday, and the analyst, MAC_D, said that the drop "may indicate easing potential selling pressure."

Retail Traders Face Seller Exhaustion

Retail traders, meanwhile, have turned gloomy. Santiment said that sentiment on Bitcoin had fallen "deep into bearish territory," with 0.82 bullish comments for every bearish one. The firm noted that major rallies "rarely begin when everyone expects one."

Bitcoin's price was down over 1% during the past 24 hours. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around BTC moved to 'extremely bearish' from the 'bearish' zone, while chatter shifted to 'normal' from 'high' over the past day.

According to a user on Stocktwits, Bitcoin could see a short-term bounce off an ascending trendline that has supported its price since the July 1 low.

Schiff Warns Of Back-To-Back Losses

However, not everyone was reading the drop as a buying chance. Longtime Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff said Bitcoin had never fallen in two calendar years in a row, but it fell 6.34% last year and was down 16.5% so far in 2026.

"Back-to-back annual declines [are] a break from precedent investors ignore at their peril," Schiff wrote on X. On Monday, he had urged holders to sell, writing, "There's a short window before the crash. Make sure to sell before it closes."

BTC has been down over 15% year-to-date.

Read also: Bitwise CIO Sees Hyperliquid Becoming Finance's Next Amazon, Calls It A ‘Financial Juggernaut’

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