Thursday , 28 March 2024

$500,000 Bitcoin? It’s Really Not That Ridiculous – Here’s Why

Bitcoin bulls estimate that the price of each coin could hit $20,000 very soon thanks to rising demand. But there are some who believe that the price of bitcoin could very well go on to hit $500,000 – even as much as $1,000,000 – in the very near future.

This article, by Lorimer Wilson, editor of munKNEE.com – Your KEY to Making Money – is an amalgamation of excerpts from 3 articles (see here, here and here) that have been edited ([ ]) and abridged (…) for a fast & easy read.

In a recent interview with BloxLive TV, Morgan Creek Digital co-founder and CEO, Mark Yusko, (Morgan Creek Digital is an asset management firm that invests in the blockchain industry) said that the price of bitcoin could eventually hit $500,000 thanks to:

  1. its scarce supply,
  2. increasing demand,
  3. and advantages over a safe-haven investment such as gold.

According to Yusko, there’s $7.4 trillion worth of gold in the world and he believes bitcoin is a much better asset than gold because it can be transferred easily and divided into smaller parts. To arrive at his forecast, Yusko equated the gold market’s value to that of the digital asset. He said:

  • If we get the amount of value in total Bitcoin market value or network value equal to gold, that’d be about $7.4 trillion divided by 21 million coins, although there aren’t really 21 million left, and you get around $400,000 a coin, maybe $500,000 a coin. Now, when does that happen? It’s probably over a decade or maybe even more” so Yusko’s half-million dollar bitcoin price forecast is based on two factors:
    1. the value of gold
    2. and the fact that only 21 million coins can be mined.

Can bitcoin be valued like gold? Probably yes, because, like gold, the digital currency is turning into a store of value and a safe-haven asset. People hold bitcoin because:

  1. it is not regulated, so they have complete ownership of the digital currency…
  2. it is much more versatile than gold in that it is divisible into small parts [making] it easily transferable from one person to another…for making payments…
  3.  it is independent of the stock market’s woes and macroeconomic tensions. The US-China trade war and the pullback in the stock market haven’t affected the price of the digital currency. This is another reason why Yusko is comparing bitcoin to gold, as investors usually flock to the yellow metal in times of uncertainty.

Yusko also points out that:

  • the total availability of bitcoin will eventually fall below 21 million coins…because investors have reportedly lost the keys to around 23% of the asset in circulation. Many believe that this is another indicator of bitcoin being equal to gold, as a lot of the yellow metal is lost at sea.
  • there are currently 18 million bitcoins in circulation…[which] means that investors have lost the keys to more than 4.1 million bitcoins so the total number of bitcoins that will eventually remain available in the long run, once all of them are mined. will be around 17 million, assuming no more keys are lost. At that level of supply, the price of each coin will be close to $500,000 and that means,
  • if you buy bitcoin at today’s price, you could enjoy gains in excess of 6,600% in the coming decade…Isn’t that enticing?

[Yusko is not alone in making such bullish – dare I say outlandish/unbelievable – forecasts.] 

John McAfee, a cybersecurity expert…[who] recently ended his role as the chief cybersecurity visionary at MGT Capital Investments – a company with a significant stake in hydro-powered bitcoin mining – has been really bold when it comes to predicting the price of bitcoin. He believes that:

He had first said, in July 2017, that one bitcoin would be worth $500,000 by the end of 2020 and if that didn’t happen, he promised that he’d do something that none of us probably want to see sayings in a tweet “if not, I will eat my dick on national television!” While it is obviously…[unlikely] that any televised network will allow such a demonstration on air, McAfee is perhaps trying to instill greater confidence in his prediction…

[In a tweet a few weeks ago he proclaimed:]

Come on people!!! It’s time to brush up your basic math skills and run some f*^#$ng numbers!!!! It is mathematically impossible for Bitcoin to be less than $1 mil by the end of 2020. Bitcoin is not an effing stock!!! You can’t apply stock paradigms or formulas and expect answers!”]

Wences Casares, CEO of bitcoin wallet Xapo and a member of PayPal’s board of directors, has made a compelling forecast on bitcoin’s value over the next decade. At a dinner organized by bitcoin and blockchain advocacy group Coin Center he told the audience:

  • put 1% of your net worth in Bitcoin
  • and that one bitcoin would hit $1 million within the next ten years.

Casares’ claim is arguably among the most bullish predictions for bitcoin prices yet. Certainly more than early Snapchat investor Jeremy Liew and Blockchain CEO Peter Smith who predicted bitcoin prices to hit $500,000 by 2030.

Related Article:

Bitcoin Is Back And It’s Going Higher

The Bitcoin bull market can last for several years, possibly longer than any previous expansion. Likewise, the price also should rise beyond previous Bitcoin peaks. Therefore, we are likely still in the initial stages of a Bitcoin bull run that could take prices to $50-100K.

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(*The author’s views and conclusions are unaltered and no personal comments have been included to maintain the integrity of the original article. Furthermore, the views, conclusions and any recommendations offered in this article are not to be construed as an endorsement of such by the editor.)