Bitcoin prices have been all over the chart in recent months. After approaching the $70,000 mark in early November, they headed back toward the $30,000 mark at the end of January before rallying to the low $40,000s last Friday. That's certainly a great deal of volatility that has created gainers and losers on both sides of the market.

Where's the digital currency heading next? There's the bullish and the bear-case scenario.

The bullish case is that the digital currency will race ahead, reaching new highs.

"Bitcoin's price dipped below $34,000 in January, halving its most recent all-time high of more than $68,000 in November," said Matthew DiRienzo, head of product management & design at StableHouse. "Despite the [Q1 2022] downdraft, bitcoin is more than twice its value just two years ago and we believe will bounce back to a new high of $100,000, though the timing is hard to predict."

DiRienzo sees the digital currency's price driven by global macroeconomic factors like the direction of interest rates and inflationary pressures.

"In addition, with nearly 20 million bitcoins in circulation today, minting will stop at 21 million,” he said. “So the forces of supply and demand will begin to impact price levels this month and in the years ahead.”

Will Clemente, a lead insights analyst at Blockware Solutions, sees a strong correlation between the price of bitcoin and other risky assets like tech stocks.

"Being perceived as a risk-on asset by traditional asset managers, bitcoin and overall crypto markets continue to trade with a high correlation to equities, particularly tech stocks and the Nasdaq overall," Clemente said.

Thus, the price of the digital currency is expected to move in tandem with these assets.

Meanwhile, Clemente keeps an eye on a number of catalysts that could be bullish for the digital currency like an oversubscription to the El Salvador bitcoin bond, Latin American countries following El Salvador, spot ETF approval, and mining adoption with rumors of Russia.

Ron Levy, CEO and co-founder of The Crypto Company, is in the bullish camp, too.

"While bitcoin is significantly down from its peak in November, it is still up 7% for the year," he said. "In 2021, the world saw institutions come on board at substantial growth rates, and in addition to a plethora of other bullish sentiments, the real challenge would be to find a reason why bitcoin will not remain bullish."

Still, there's the bearish case.

"The Band-Aid seems to have been ripped off as far as bitcoin's price action goes, and a local bottom appears to have formed around $33,000," said Michal Cymbalisty, founder of Domination Finance. "Bitcoin has rebounded nearly 20% and is trading around $39,000 with bulls slowly reemerging onto the scene.

"Unfortunately, I expect the 'only up' cries to be short-lived. If I were to guess, bitcoin would trade in a "crab range," spending the most time in the mid to upper 30s range, with temporary breakouts and breakdowns into the lower 40s and lower 30s, respectively."

And rising interest rates may "lay precedent for macro-oriented investors to sell any type of relief rallies over the coming month," according to Cymbalisty.

Meanwhile, Robert Johnson, a business professor at Creighton University, thinks that the bearish case is stronger than the bullish case.

"Predicting the direction of speculative assets in the short term is fraught with peril," he said. "To quote that baseball philosopher Yogi Berra, 'It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.'

"However, given the highly speculative nature of bitcoin and the likely Fed tightening, the bearish case for bitcoin is stronger than the bullish case."