As the first and most popular cryptocurrency, many investors are curious about the price of Bitcoin. It is not hard to find predictions regarding Bitcoin’s price online, but these tend to vary slightly based on the source. You will have a much better idea of where Bitcoin is heading if you can look at the various predictions in a single, convenient location, such as this list.
Bitcoin’s Current Price
In order to fully understand the various price predictions regarding Bitcoin, you need to have an idea of where the cryptocurrency currently stands. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is worth $3,896.07 USD, a decline of 1.12 percent. There is a maximum supply of 21 million BTC with 17,582,750 in circulation. The market cap is $68.5 billion USD and the 24-hour volume is $9.9 billion USD. It is, unsurprisingly, the top-ranked cryptocurrency.
Some Say It Can Reach $50,000
There are extreme predictions regarding Bitcoin’s price, both low and high. One example is Jeet Singh, a portfolio manager who mentioned at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year that it would be possible for Bitcoin to reach a whopping $50,000. Singh did not express concern about the volatility of Bitcoin since cryptos typically fluctuate 70 to 80 percent. He compared crypto to now-major companies like Apple and Microsoft, who began with volatility but are now highly-valued.
Some Predict It Will Reach $1 Million by 2020
John McAfee, famous for his antivirus software, has strongly positive predictions for Bitcoin. In fact, those predictions go even further than those of Singh, which seem already high. In late November 2017, McAfee updated his previous estimate that Bitcoin would hit $500,000 by the end of 2020, increasing the prediction to $1 million. According to McAfee’s tweet, the higher prediction was due to Bitcoin doing even better at the end of 2017 than he had included in his original model.
While this figure seems too good to be true, McAfee did base it off logic and models. The prediction accounted for increased adoption of both the blockchain and Bitcoin, plus a total crypto market cap growth.
Others Say It Will Drop to $100
On the other side of the spectrum, there are those experts that feel Bitcoin is currently overvalued and cannot maintain even a fraction of its current status. Kenneth Rogoff, for example, is a former chief economist for International Monetary Fund and is highly critical of Bitcoin. He predicts that in about ten years or so, Bitcoin will drop in value to around $100. According to Rogoff, this drop will be due to the arrival of government regulations that will likely pop the Bitcoin bubble.
Bitcoin Could Hit up to $64,000
Tom Lee, who is the co-founder of Fundstrat and former Chief Equity Strategist for JP Morgan, argues there is a correlation between the BTC price and the break-even cost for mining one coin. He feels that BTC’s value will increase as institutional investors continue to express interest. His prediction is that by the end of the year, Bitcoin will likely reach somewhere between $20,000 and $64,000, probably at least $36,000. This prediction comes with assistance from an analyst at Fundstrat, Sam Doctor. According to Lee, the current price of BTC is lower than its fair value and this will be adjusted in the future.
There Is Also a Middle Ground
If you look to the various websites that have yearly or even monthly price predictions for Bitcoin, you will notice that they tend to stick to the middle ground. The Economy Forecast Agency, for example, uses algorithms and models to list predictions for high, low open, and close prices for every month through April 2023.
Based on the figures outlined, this expert website predicts that Bitcoin will hit a peak in May at $5,005 before slowly decreasing throughout late 2019 and 2020. The prediction has 2020 ending with a December high of $3,963. After this, however, the Economy Forecast Agency predicts Bitcoin will steadily rise in value, reaching a high of $9,244 in October 2021 and a high of $16,719 in 2022. Its predicted January 2023 high is $17,461.
Another Middle-Ground Prediction
Mike Novogratz, the founder of Galaxy Digital and a former hedge fund chief, predicted earlier in 2019 that BTC will get over $10,000 by the end of the first quarter in 2019. He further predicts that it could reach $20,000 or go above that all-time high.
It Will Stabilize in the Near Future
While many experts come up with specific figures that they believe Bitcoin will reach, others just look at overall trends. Kristjan Dekleva, a Swiss-based financial expert, suggests that in the near future, Bitcoin’s price will begin to stabilize. He links this upcoming stabilization to the general acceptance of BTC as an alternative to fiat currency.
A Final Word
Overall, experts in the world of cryptocurrency believe that Bitcoin still has plenty of room to grow, with the occasional naysayer thrown in. While it may still take a while to reach its all-time high or surpass that, the crypto will likely continue to grow, if the expert consensus is to be believed. The rate at which it does so, however, is unsure with experts in disagreement. There may be drops along the way. The bottom line is that there is no way to predict the future price of Bitcoin with 100 percent accuracy so any investment of this cryptocurrency does come with some element of risk. Bitcoin can be a smart investment, but you should not buy more than you can afford to lose.
Sources:
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/
https://longforecast.com/bitcoin-price-predictions-2017-2018-2019-btc-to-usd
https://coinswitch.co/news/bitcoin-price-prediction-2019-btc-price-to-touch-23500-in-2019