Bitcoin evangelists are at it again: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong joined the million-dollar Bitcoin prophecy club Tuesday, suggesting that the cryptocurrency could reach “multiple millions” in value in what he called “the dawn of a new day for crypto.”
“We have seen just incredible growth and I think it hit an all-time high yesterday, so we feel very good about that,” he told CNBC this morning. “I think over time we’ll see Bitcoin get into the multiple millions price range.”
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 Bircoin at $1 million by the end of 2020. I will still eat my dick if wrong. pic.twitter.com/WVx3E71nyD
Unlike McAfee, Armstrong gave four credible reasons to back up his prediction:
“If the U.S. took that path, probably the rest of the G20 would follow,” Armstrong argued about a strategic reserve. “I think Bitcoin has a long way to go—it’s going to be the new gold standard out there, but crypto is really much bigger than that too.”
Armstrong is hardly alone in the high-stakes prediction game. MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, whose company holds 461,000 Bitcoin worth over $49 billion, went even further. The tech entrepreneur forecasted in September that Bitcoin could hit $13 million per coin over the next 21 years.
That’s a more than 12,000% increase from the current price of under $107,000, in case anyone’s counting.
The bullish sentiment stems partly from recent developments in U.S. politics. Trump’s pro-crypto stance has energized the market. Said Saylor: “The Republicans have shifted to way progressive and the Democrats are drifting to the middle in terms of their view toward crypto and Bitcoin.”
Both Coinbase and MicroStrategy are heavily invested in Bitcoin’s success, of course. Coinbase, a crypto exchange, depends on trading activity for revenue, while MicroStrategy has bet its treasury on Bitcoin, holding over 2% of the cryptocurrency’s total supply.
MicroStrategy’s stock price has exploded since the company began its Bitcoin buying spree in 2020, when the cryptocurrency was trading below $12,000. The company’s shares now serve as a proxy for Bitcoin exposure in traditional markets, even after the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs about a year ago.
Each stock has gained substantially in January so far, with COIN up about 18% and MSTR surging by 34% as of this writing.
Image: Tradingview
Armstrong’s forecasts, shared during a CNBC interview, come at a bullish time among institutional investors. Currently, Bitcoin is going through a phase of “extreme greed” among investors, per an index from Alternative.me.
That said, follow the markets but don’t bet on the market makers’ words. Unlike the 2017 prediction by McAfee—who vowed to “eat my dick” if Bitcoin didn’t hit $1 million by 2020—Armstrong carefully avoided setting any specific timeline, making his prediction technically valid for anywhere between next Saturday and the heat death of the universe.
“Over time” is pretty versatile when it comes to interpretations. Armstrong’s dick is probably safe regardless.
