Bitcoin’s Meteoric Rise: From Silver Market Size to Million-Dollar Dreams

Bitcoin has made historic gains and is today the ninth largest asset on Planet Earth, approximately the size of the silver market. And, according to CEOs of multi-billion dollar companies and asset management companies, Bitcoin could skyrocket from its current price level by a factor of nearly one thousand.

Eye-popping price predictions have always been a part of Bitcoin’s culture. In a post-COVID world, calls for million dollar Bitcoin grew increasingly loud, especially as MicroStrategy, which now owns 226,500 bitcoins, began accumulating its position in the world’s first digital asset. 

At Bitcoin Conference 2021, for instance, several Bitcoin price predictions were made. The Winklevoss twins, Cory and Cameron, made a base case for $500,000 Bitcoin. They foresaw–and still do–Bitcoin disrupting the gold market. Cathie Wood at the time was calling for a Bitcoin price of $1,000,000 by 2030.

“Bitcoin is gold 2.0,” said Tyler at Bitcoin Conference 2021. “It will disrupt gold. So, its market cap has to be ten trillion or more, because that’s the market cap of gold. Bitcoin’s hovering around $1 trillion now. It’s, at least conservatively, a 10x from here.”

Tyler added: “…At a $10 trillion market cap, one bitcoin will be worth $500,000. That could happen inside this decade…So, we’re hodlers at least until $500,000.”

Since then, predictions have far exceeded that price range, and in 2024 the cottage industry of Bitcoin price predictions has reached a remarkable new paradigm. 

Institutional Asset Manager Sufficiently Orange-Pilled

VanEck, a global investment manager with $89.5 billion under management, predicted in August that Bitcoin could hit $52, 386, 207 by 2050 if fiat currencies continued to decline in importance. The asset manager’s base case is $2.9 million.

“We expect BTC to be widely used in international trade, becoming a significant medium of exchange and a valuable store of wealth,” reads the report by Matthew Sigel and Patrick Bush. 

They wrote that “as BTC becomes more useful and valuable, central banks and long-term investors will want to hold more BTC, reducing the amount available in the floating supply.”   

Michael Saylor’s 21 Year Vision

Van Eck’s has not been the sole off the charts Bitcoin prediction this year. Michael Saylor, the CEO of MicroStrategy who said he thinks Bitcoin “keeps going up forever,” dropped a bull and bear scenario at Bitcoin 2024, the world’s largest Bitcoin conference.

In Nashville July 24-27, Bitcoin 2024 hosted a gathering of Bitcoiners, from individuals to institutions alike. Former President Trump spoke there as did the independent candidate for President, Robert F. Kennedy.

Saylor predicted the price of Bitcoin to land somewhere between $3 million and $49 million, landing on $13 million as his primary prediction.

“55% ARR [Annual Recurring Revenue] goes to 50% to 45% to 35% to 25%,” said Saylor. “It’ll gradually decelerate until it’s growing about twice as fast as the S&P index. And at that rate, Bitcoin is $13 million a coin in the year 2045.”

He couched his prediction: “It could be a $3 million bear case, it could be a $49 million bull case.”

Saylor argues Bitcoin’s price could go up forever because of his view that Bitcoin is a superior form of capital. He cites the fact that the longest running farm in the US, the King farm, lasted only 173 years. 

InaSaylor’s Bitcoin can outlast any physical assets, and gives it a 1,000 years shelf-life.

Orange Dad, Poor Dad

Robert Kiyosaki predicted in July that Bitcoin would rise $10 million per coin “easily” due to the US causing a devaluation of the dollar.

Kiyosaki anticipates Bitcoin, stocks, and real estate will crash due to US debt that has soared to $35 trillion, forcing the Federal Reserve to lower rates and embark upon more Quantitative Easing. 

“Technical charts indicate biggest crash in history coming,” wrote Kiyosaki on X. “Prices of real estate, stocks, bonds, gold, silver, & Bitcoin crash.”

He tells his followers not to worry. 

“Technical charts indicate major long term bull market cycles will follow….starting bull market climb (sic) in late 2025, raising prices for years,” the author writes, noting this is the bull market cycle for which gold, silver, and Bitcoin investors have waited. 

“They know history will repeat,” he said. “They know what happen (sic) to Germany’s Reischmark (sic) and the Zimbabwe dollar.”  

The Basis For Eight Figure Bitcoin

The price predictions hinge on big changes unfolding in the global socioeconomic system. Especially in the case of Saylor and Kiyosaki, the theory is that our old systems no longer work. 

As fiat currencies continue to depreciate, the world is going to look for places to park capital, and Bitcoin is the world’s only known asset with a finite cap, is superior capital than every other commodity including gold and real estate, and has a distinct advantage over precious metals in that it can be the reserve asset of the already-underway digital revolution. 

The Facts As They Stand

For now, we do know that Bitcoin is capped at 21 million coins. It is perhaps the only known commodity on the planet with a hard-capped, known supply. 

Furthermore, nation-states are moving to adopt Bitcoin. El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender, added it to the nation’s treasury, and continues to buy one Bitcoin per day. 

The independent candidate for President of the United States, Robert F. Kennedy, said he would add Bitcoin to the nation’s treasury as a strategic asset. 

And then Former President Donald Trump promised the same, as candidates fight over the deep-pocketed industry with invested interest in national and state-level political outcomes.

The laws of supply and demand might make eight figure Bitcoin an inevitability.