Despite the price of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) struggling to stay above $60,000, many top investors are confident that the world’s most popular cryptocurrency will eventually reach a price of $1 million or higher. In fact, at last month’s Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee, MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor predicted that Bitcoin could reach a value of $13 million by 2045.
At current prices, that would represent an eye-watering gain of over 20,000%. Against this backdrop, it’s perhaps unsurprising that billionaires, including some who were once longtime crypto skeptics, are now lining up to buy more Bitcoin. But the potential for huge returns isn’t their only motivation.
Bitcoin as a top performing asset
Who wouldn’t want to buy a digital asset that could increase in value by 20,000% over the next ten to twenty years?
You might want to take Saylor’s recent Bitcoin price predictions with a grain of salt. He’s one of the biggest Bitcoin bulls, and he has a vested interest in getting as many investors as possible excited about Bitcoin’s future growth potential. After all, the company he runs is now the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin in the world.
But Saylor isn’t alone. A growing number of prominent investors have made price predictions for Bitcoin of $1 million or higher. Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood, for example, thinks Bitcoin will hit $3.8 million by 2030. Investment firm Bernstein has made a $1 million price prediction for Bitcoin by 2033. And many smart people in Silicon Valley have been drawn to Bitcoin’s underlying digital technology, suggesting Bitcoin could reach $1 million or more.
Bitcoin as a hedge against risks
And investors are looking beyond Bitcoin’s value as a speculative asset. They also see it as a potential hedge against political, economic and geopolitical risks. Billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones, for example, compares Bitcoin to gold for this reason. If investors are worried about what happens next, they should consider buying Bitcoin, he says.
According to Jones, there are two reasons to be particularly concerned right now. One is the geopolitical situation in the Middle East and the risks of a regional war. The other is the domestic macroeconomic situation. According to him, US government debt is reaching unsustainable levels and investing in Bitcoin is a way to protect your portfolio from a worst-case economic scenario.
Bitcoin as a long-term store of value
Finally, billionaire investors are looking to Bitcoin as a long-term store of value. For example, billionaire hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller now sees Bitcoin as comparable to gold in this regard. In fact, he calls Bitcoin a newcomer that could displace gold as the market leader.
Will Bitcoin eventually supplant gold as the long-term store of value of choice? A lot of smart people on Wall Street seem to think so. In 2022, Wall Street’s investment bank Goldman Sachs suggested that Bitcoin could eventually control half of the store of value market. And Cathie Wood’s bullish crypto predictions also predict that Bitcoin will gain a growing share of the store of value market.
What if the billionaires are wrong?
Of course, there’s always a chance that the billionaires are wrong. After the recent crypto flash crash in early August, when Bitcoin lost 15% of its value overnight, all the usual critics were out in force.
They suggested that Bitcoin had a greater chance of going to zero than to $1 million. They suggested that investors who put their money into the new spot Bitcoin ETFs are caught up in a huge speculative frenzy. They suggested that Bitcoin was a risky asset, just like any other risky asset, that offered no particular safety during a market downturn.
Right. These are all legitimate arguments. If you are investing in Bitcoin, you should at least know what the Bitcoin bears are saying.
But in the long run, my money is on the billionaires. They are the ones who are now creating new investment products for Bitcoin, and they are the ones who are helping to build the regulatory and legal framework that will allow Bitcoin to flourish.
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Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Billionaires Are Buying This Cryptocurrency That Could Surge 20,000%, According to MicroStrategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor originally published by The Motley Fool
