$9k estimate is still far fetched in my opinion. We even struggled to get past $7k and hold so it likely that he still pushes for a price that it is still good and make money out of it.
It looks like that right now, but just one spark is enough to turn this market into bull mode.
People go with the flow of the market. Last year around the prime days of the bull run most of the people here were so full of themselves, that they genuinely thought the price would hit $30-$40,000 in 2018. It didn't. Currently the bearish sentiment has the same effect on people, but then in the opposite direction.
I don't believe we'll see significantly higher levels this year, but a breakout facing north is definitely a possibility. It could peak at $8000 or $9000 who knows, but we'll break the $7000 level in the coming weeks, and when that happens, people will gain back some confidence.