Wellington-Altus chief market strategist James Thorne outlined on Nov. 14 a potential bitcoin recovery scenario that targets $117,000 by mid-2027 and $150,000-$170,000 by the end of 2027. The view is conditional on bitcoin reclaiming specific price levels after a selloff that Thorne attributed to leverage.
A staged recovery scenario
In his forecast shared on X, Thorne set out the sequence needed for the recovery. He said bitcoin must first reclaim $73,000, then confirm above $87,000.
“Reclaim $73k. Confirm above $87k. Target $117k by mid-2027, then a break of the $126k high and $150–170k by year-end. That’s what the chart says,” Thorne stated.
Thorne described an inverse head-and-shoulders formation, a pattern consisting of three successive lows with the middle low deepest that can signal a reversal of a downtrend. He placed the left shoulder near $59,000 and the head around $57,000. The right shoulder, a third low above the head, was still forming in his assessment.
A neckline connects the rebound highs between those lows and marks resistance where selling previously stalled price advances. Thorne’s chart placed that zone around $82,000-$87,000, with confirmation requiring bitcoin to rise above its upper boundary.
Subsequent trading pushed bitcoin below $62,000 on Nov. 15, with Coinglass recording a low of $61,956.30. That moved the price closer to Thorne’s $57,000 invalidation level while leaving it below his initial $73,000 recovery threshold.
“Below $57k, I’m wrong,” Thorne stated.
Liquidations and demand signals
Coinglass figures published on Nov. 13 showed crypto liquidations totaling $1.62 billion over 24 hours, including $1.46 billion in bullish positions. Those losses documented substantial forced closures during the decline.
“This washout was leverage, not fundamentals. Buy the fear,” Thorne said.
Glassnode’s Nov. 11 assessment nevertheless identified shrinking liquidity and weaker U.S. demand. Its findings included a $14.2 billion contraction in stablecoin supply over 30 days and $1.6 billion in net withdrawals from U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs across 20 trading sessions. Bitcoin also traded at a discount on Coinbase, reinforcing the firm’s assessment of weak U.S. buying interest alongside the derivatives unwind.
By Nov. 14, reduced leverage and renewed whale accumulation offered potential recovery signals amid those pressures. Whale accumulation refers to rising balances in wallets holding large amounts of bitcoin. Glassnode identified accumulation among wallets holding 100 to 10,000 BTC, while smaller holders and certain larger cohorts continued reducing their balances.
