How High Can Bitcoin Go Or Is It A Bubble?

Bitcoin has been on a tear this year as it keeps on setting record highs.  At the time of my writing this article, Bitcoin is pushing $6,800 price levels and $113.68 billion in market capitalization.

With the current price hovering around US$6,800, a USD100 investment in Bitcoin in March 2010 (when the price was $.003) would have ballooned to USD226 million at current price, representing a gain of 2,266,666%!

What’s in store for the world’s most popular cryptocurrency? Can it go higher? If so, how high can it go? Bitcoin has ushered in “a period of economic nirvana.” Everyone is coming up with a price forecast these days, with some of the biggest banks including Goldman Sachs Group jumping into the action, while speculators and long-time investors are also making their bets.

Ronnie Moas at Standpoint Research says Bitcoin will keep rising to $7,500 in 2018 and will soar to $15,000 to $20,000 in the next three years and can surge to $50,000 by 2027 as he expects cryptocurrency users will grow to as high as 100 million users from 10 million today in the next couple of years.

John Spallanzani, chief macro strategist at GFI Group predicts Bitcoin can climb to as high as $10,000 in 2018.

Widely followed strategist Tom Lee estimates that bitcoin’s value per unit could be $20,000 to $55,000 by 2022.

Analyst Kay Van-Petersen predicts that Bitcoin could hit $100,000 in 10 years.

The legend known as Kim DotCom believes a price per Bitcoin of $100,000 is a possibility within a decade or two.

Jeremy Liew, the first investor in Snapchat, thinks each bitcoin could realistically be worth $500,000 by 2030.

Wences Casares, a member of PayPal’s board of directors and CEO of bitcoin wallet Xapo, notably predicted that bitcoin will hit $1 million within 10 years.

Many experts are wondering — could Bitcoin potentially rise to $1 million?

Going from the current price of around $6,800 to $1 million would represent a rather mild gain when compared to the gains of the past seven years as  a jump from $6,800 to $1 million would represent a gain of “only” 14,605%. It is undeniable that widespread mainstream acceptance is what would need to happen before bitcoin could reach the $1 million level, or anything close to it.

Bitcoin blogger Datavetaren in a 2015 interview said that not only will Bitcoin reach $1 million USD in value, but it will replace gold as the economic “safe haven” of choice.

Financial analyst Rick Falkvinge holds the view that Bitcoin very well could one day be worth $1,000,000.

Longtime Bitcoin proponent Trace Mayer, who can be credited with teaching many gold and silver investors about Bitcoin, has made multiple cases for a Bitcoin price of more than $1,000,000.

The richest minds in the world know virtual currencies offer a better way to store wealth and do business.

The richest man on the planet, Bill Gates, dubbed cryptos ‘better than currency…the future of money’.

Entrepreneur and seriously rich Peter Thiel (of Paypal fame) says people are ‘underestimating’ the potential of bitcoin.

Cybersecurity pioneer and multi-millionaire, John McAfee says bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are an ‘unstoppable movement’.

“We’re in a very healthy position right now,” said Paul Veradittakit, vice president of Pantera Capital, which has invested in bitcoin since 2014. “There’s a lot of interest from traders and mainstream finance on the rise of all these new crytpo currencies, but when they first get exposure into the space, they’ll go into bitcoin. It has the most liquidity and biggest brand name.”

Veradittakit said bitcoin will hover around current levels and rally further once the underlying technology is upgraded in November, when the block size in the bitcoin blockchain is set to double to two megabytes, increasing transaction speed.

Billionaire investor, Tim Draper says:

‘…If you ask me five years from now, what I think this is [bitcoin and cryptocurrencies] all going to look like, I think people are going to laugh when you try to use fiat currency at Starbucks.

‘I think cryptocurrencies are much more transportable, it is much easier to use, it is a better store of value, and all of these companies that are transforming society, this is the most exciting thing that has happened in my world, even more exciting than the Internet was.’

However, famous investors Ray Dalio and Warren Buffett are warning of a bitcoin bubble. US banker Jamie Dimon called bitcoin a ‘fraud’ recently. Peter Schiff, an investor who predicted the 2008 mortgage crisis, see bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as existing in a bubble and as a Ponzi scheme built on “just plain greed.”

Jeffrey Kleintop, the chief global investment strategist at Charles Schwab, suggested bitcoin was in a bubble unlike any we had ever seen before. Kleintop’s warning came just a few weeks after tech billionaire Mark Cuban tweeted: “I think it’s in a bubble. I just don’t know when or how much it corrects. When everyone is bragging about how easy they are making $=bubble.”

So is Bitcoin the best investment mankind has ever encountered or is it a bubble of historic proportions?

You be the judge!

P/S.  I am a staunch supporter of Bitcoin and I hold some Bitcoin. This article is to present the two views about Bitcoin and is NOT intended to serve as an investment guide!