Bitcoin prices just got smashed, but this crypto insider still sees $160,000

The steep pullback in bitcoin prices (BTC-USD) this week doesn’t derail the bullish outlook for cryptocurrency, argues one veteran industry insider.

“If we have enough volume from new buyers, we should go back and retest that $53,000 to $55,000 level. If we break through that, we will see new highs this year. I am still holding my projections that we will be hitting the $140,000 to $160,000 levels. It might take us into Q1 of next year because of this kind of flash crash and clean-up we have seen with the Chinese miners, but it’s definitely going higher,” said Celsius Network CEO Alex Mashinsky on Yahoo Finance Live.

The keywords, by the leader of a crypto platform, being “new buyers.”

Bitcoin prices plunged at one point by 10% on Wednesday continuing a rout that started on Tuesday amid a botched rollout of the crypto as a currency in El Salvador. The selling extended to other cryptos as well as traders viewed glitches with El Salvador’s rollout as a negative for adoption in other countries.

The price of bitcoin as of this writing were flirting with the $46,000 level, down sharply from the more than $52,000 seen ahead of the El Salvador launch.

Another bitcoin pro Yahoo Finance talked with also pointed to Coinbase’s ongoing battle with the SEC as an added reason for the pullback in bitcoin prices. Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong went on a 21-tweet rant against the SEC for threatening to sue the crypto exchange if it launches a new lending product.

“The Coinbase news isn’t helping,” said a source on market sentiment.

Despite the fresh bitcoin volatility, one would be hard pressed to find a concerned crypto loyalist. To this group, nothing has changed in terms of crypto fundamentals and hence, prices are likely to head higher.

Explains Mashinsky, “It took 12 years to get the first 100 million users into bitcoin. It took five months to double that. So now there is over 200 million users worldwide that hold bitcoin accounts. It’s definitely accelerating, we are seeing the hockey stick.”

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.