Bitcoin’s ‘Coiled Spring’ Setup Has Economist James Thorne Bullish On The ‘Next Big Trade’

James Thorne, PhD Economist and Chief Market Strategist at Wellington-Altus, doubled down on his bullish Bitcoin (BTC) call, calling the cryptocurrency a “coiled spring” and the market’s “next big trade.”Speaking in an interview with Mark Moss on Friday, Thorne made the case for a macro thesis that the U.S. should grow out of debt through supply-side and non-inflationary growth rather than through a war. According to him, Bitcoin was one of the clearest beneficiaries of that shift.Thorne singled out Bitcoin among all the other assets when he was asked where he saw the next big trade for investors who can hold through volatility. "It's not gold, I think gold can double from here. It's not Micron (MU); Micron can double from here, but you've got this - Bitcoin is a coiled spring,” he noted. was up by 0.2% in the past 24 hours. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around BTC moved to the ‘neutral’ zone from the ’ bullish’ zone, as chatter around it stayed at ‘normal’ levels over the past day.Why Bitcoin Goes Up NextHe said that narrative tended to follow price, and that he expected a wave of bullish catalysts to emerge once Bitcoin turned higher.These included a broader debasement trade, a manufacturing rebound above 50 on the ISM index, and Bitcoin becoming a “standard contributor to asset allocation platforms” as investors realized that a 3% to 5% allocation would improve a portfolio’s Sharpe ratio, which measures how much return an investment delivers for each unit of risk it takes on.But according to Thorne, beneath these lay a more fundamental point that people were missing. Bitcoin was “a neutral asset” for a global economy that was “going digital” as financial markets move onto blockchain rails.The Technical Signal He's WatchingThorne said he ignores headlines in favor of a single technical signal, like the 200-day exponential moving average. "When it's upward sloping and right positive, you buy. When it's downward sloping, it's negative, you sell," he said, adding that Bitcoin was "very close" to that crossover turning positive.Thorne posted a chart on X showing Bitcoin's 30-week and 40-week exponential moving averages (EMAs), which weight recent prices more heavily than a simple average.Both had both turned upward, and he called that shift "the transition from a bearish grind to a bullish reversal, not a one-day bounce," and noted that the intermediate trend had “changed from down to up," even though price could “still chop."Thorne said his own portfolio reflects the conviction, and that his “risk capital” was in Bitcoin. He pointed to the top cryptocurrency’s performance over the last 11 months, and said, "You can't give it away right now. So, I'm very bullish."That bullishness carries a condition. If Democratic Socialists gain control of Congress after the 2026 midterms, Thorne said, "then the bullish thesis is off the table," an outcome he said would also make him "excessively bearish" on markets broadly.Thorne Defended Bitcoin BeforeThorne's comments come from his extended bullish position on Bitcoin. In July, after Bitcoin and gold ranked among 2026's worst-performing assets despite an active US-Iran war, Thorne had  that regulatory uncertainty, not volatility, was the real barrier to Bitcoin adoption, pegging its long-term upside at $240,000 to $250,000 if it matches Nvidia's (NVDA) market capitalization, or $1.5 million to $1.8 million if it matches gold's.