The CEO of a crypto research firm says bitcoin is going to $100,000 by year-end

• The CEO of Chainalysis, Michael Gronager, is bullish on bitcoin and sees it reaching $100,000 by year-end.
• "Usually you say the moon is the limit. We can go up beyond that as well," he said.

Michael Gronager - CEO of the cryptocurrency research firm Chainalysis - is highly bullish on bitcoin, and says it will soar past $100,000 by year-end.

In comments made during an interview with Bloomberg, Gronager referenced bitcoin's early-summer sell-off as a consolidation period that coincided with network improvements and other helpful upgrades across the crypto landscape.

"In the bear market, a lot of interesting things have been built, and that basically facilitates a new bull market," he said. "Yes, I think we're still in a bull market. I think we can see above $100k by the end of the year."

He added: "For most of the cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum - the most stable ones - we just need to see that trend, where they grow year-over-year. Sometimes they grow faster than others."

"Long term, usually you say the moon is the limit. We can go up beyond that as well," Gronager concluded.

Bitcoin is currently trading just above the key $50,000 threshold, climbing as much as 3% to $51,033.97 on Friday.

The cryptocurrency is now up 74% year-to-date and 369% in the past 12 months.

The asset fell from its record high of almost $65,000 in April this year. It suffered a sharp sell-off in May and traded rangebound for a while. It's since been on an upward trend since mid-May.

Read more: The head of research for a blockchain analytics firm breaks down why bitcoin and ethereum can reach $100,000 and $10,000 respectively by next year - and shares 2 altcoins that are best positioned for a DeFi comeback