Bitcoin is closely following its early 2019 surge and its price could peak at around $45,000 next month, according to Vetle Lunde, a senior analyst at K33 Research. The cryptocurrency has soared 80% this year, beating traditional risky assets, including the tech-heavy Nasdaq index, by a wide margin. The rally comes after a 12-month decline when prices fell 76% and bottomed out in November 2022. The drop and subsequent recovery are analogous to the pattern seen in the 2018-19 bear market in terms of length and trajectory, according to Lunde. “Bottoms in both cycles lasted for approximately 370 days. And the peak-to-trough return after 510 days of both cycles reached 60%,” Lunde said in a note sent to clients last week. “In 2018, the bear market rally topped 556 days after the 2017 peak, on June 29, 2019, with a 34% drawdown from the peak.”