For over a decade, Bitcoin’s underlying state-of-the-art blockchain technology, cryptic origin, and libertarian vibes have been garnering attention worldwide, with many prominent traders and developers speculating about its use cases and values.
Here is a wrap-up of the most striking Bitcoin price predictions made to date.
First off is the late John MacAfee, the unorthodox Bitcoin proponent and libertarian, with a taste for unconventional BTC price predictions.
In July 2017, McAfee claimed that by the end of 2017, BTC would be trading at $5,000. Instead, BTC hit a high of $19,303.74 on December 17, 2017, closing the year at $12,629.81.
Despite making a miscalculation, McAfee continued to spew out statements, saying that Bitcoin would hit $500,000 by the end of 2020 before doubling up on his prediction. His tweet dated November 2017 reads: “When I predicted Bitcoin at $500,000 by the end of 2020, it used a model that predicted $5,000 at the end of 2017. BTC has accelerated much faster than my model assumptions. I now predict Bitcoin at $1 million by the end of 2020. I will still eat my dick if wrong.”
Later, however, he backtracked on his forecast, describing it as a total “nonsense”, adding that people who believed his “absurd” forecast should “wake up”. He went on to describe Bitcoin as “ancient” tech, claiming that he used the $1 million figure to lure more users into the crypto-verse. He also refused to eat his genitals on TV.
Sadly, McAfee can no longer make Bitcoin price predictions or stand for presidential election in the U.S. as he committed suicide in 2021 shortly after the Spanish high court had approved his extradition to the U.S., where he was charged with failing to file tax returns.
While Fundstrat’s Tom Lee is a far more conventional figure than the late McAfee, like him, he is a prolific predictor and a prominent Bitcoin supporter who once claimed that Bitcoin would “cannibalize” gold.
In 2017, he stated that BTC could rise to a range of $20,000 to $55,000 in the next five years, a prediction that turned out to be correct with BTC hitting an all-time high, over $60,000, in October 2021.
His 2021 prediction that BTC would reach a hundred thousand by year-end, however, turned out to be wrong, with the chief cryptocurrency finishing at about $46,000.
Staying true to himself, Lee continues to make new prophecies. Per the latest one, Bitcoin will hit the 200,000 mark by the end of 2022, with Lee noting that “interest rates look like they’re set to reverse almost 30 years of declines. That means for the next ten years, you’re guaranteed to lose money owning bonds… It’s really going to be tracing its roots to a rotation out of bonds, and it’s going to eventually flow into crypto.”
Marc Cuban, the celebrity investor and owner of NBA's Dallas Mavericks, is a crypto bull with a twist. Although he once criticized Bitcoin, claiming it was ‘easier to trade bananas than Bitcoin’, it is also true that cryptocurrencies make up 80% of his investment portfolio.
Despite not being too keen on voicing a specific price tag, Cuban has consistently stated that Bitcoin has “a HUGE advantage” in that it has “ZERO competition” as a store of value. While praising crypto, he also makes it clear that he prefers Ethereum to BTC.
Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, is another attention-worthy bull.
In 2017, he said that people are “underestimating” bitcoin and it has “great potential left”, noting that “I’m skeptical of most of them (cryptocurrencies), I do think people are a little bit … underestimating bitcoin, especially because ... it’s like a reserve form of money, it’s like gold, and it’s just a store of value. You don’t need to use it to make payments.”
He also described Bitcoin as an online equivalent to gold, predicting its ultimate triumph.
Speaking at the Bitcoin 2022 summit in Miami in April, he declared a McAfee-style prediction, saying that Bitcoin is poised for '100x" Price Gains.
So, what will BTC be worth, according to him? At least 4 million.
Mike Novogratz, the Galaxy Digital CEO, is what you call a bitcoin devotee. Although he is less fervent than Thiel when it comes to issuing prophecies, he still believes that BTC will hit the $500,000 mark.
According to him, this will happen because the Federal Reserve has been increasing interest rates non-stop. Once the Fed takes a break, Bitcoin will resume its upward movement.
Being a crypto bull, he also stated that he expects Bitcoin price to eventually reach as high as $1 million.
Michaël van de Poppe, CEO & Founder of Eight and a seasoned investor, is another crypto bull who is aiming big. Last year, the Dutch investor unveiled his predictions, tweeting: “Peak high bull cycle prediction, it still stands. Expecting 2022/2023 to be the top, not this year. $350,000-450,000 #Ethereum $10,000-17,500 #Polkadot $350-500 #Chainlink $350-500 #Cardano $10-20 #Elrond $750-1,000 #DIA $60-100 #Zilliqa $5-7”.
Also, here is a take from Greg Beard who ranks among Wall Street's most successful natural resource investors of the past twenty years and co-founder of what is slated to become one of the world's largest Bitcoin mining outfits. Like others, he is a notable crypto bull and believes that Bitcoin's 40% decline from its October peak of over $60,000 is a matchless buying opportunity.
If Beard is right, then BTC would be selling for at least $200,000 by the spring of 2027.
Enticing as these predictions are, only time will tell which of them turn out to be true. After all, if there is one thing that we have learned about the crypto market so far is that it is an unpredictable space.
I like it more because I can see an unlimited number of applications that will change the business and consumer world forever,he said in an interview with CNBC.
Bitcoin is the canary in the coal mine; it was telling us that inflation is coming; it is telling us that central banks are bankrupt; it is telling us that we are at the end of the fiat money regime,he claimed, adding that BTC’s main competitors are global equities.
It's hard to know where Bitcoin's price will be at, say, the end of the year but if you're a fundamental-style investor that believes in Bitcoin as a store of value, it should be worth multiples of today's price in five years, I'd say at least five times,he says.
