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Crypto expert Tim Draper has made a 'crazy' prediction for the future of Bitcoin.
There's gold in those virtual hills, as American venture capital investor Tim Draper has predicted a meteoric rise in the value of Bitcoin. From its early days from the mind of the MIA Satoshi Nakamoto to Donald Trump being the first U.S. President to buy a burger with Bitcoin, we've seen El Salvador adopt it as a currency and people threaten to sue local councils over their missing Bitcoin billions.
In May 2010, the first notable retail Bitcoin transaction traded two Papa John's pizzas for 10,000 mined BTC. Although that was only the equivalent of around $40, jump forward to 2024 and the rise of Bitcoin means the same 10,000 BTC is currently worth $1,016,935,000.
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Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $66,975 in October 2021 before quickly falling by almost 50% in January 2022, but since then, there's largely been a steady climb. Bitcoin finally surged to a new all-time high of $73,664 in March 2024, then broke the $100k line on December 5. There's been a mad flurry of activity as analysts predict what comes next, but for Draper, this is the start of something massive.
Speaking to Benzinga, Draper suggested that Bitcoin will continue its upward trajectory to reach $120k by the end of the year: "My first prediction was in 2014 when Bitcoin was at $180. I said that it would be $10,000 in three years. Sure enough, by the end of 2017, Bitcoin hit $10,000."
Although Draper admitted he was wrong about Bitcoin reaching $250,000 in 2022, he's still looking into his Bitcoin ball about what comes next. Saying he was three years off with his $250k projections, he added: "I think we can chalk those three years up to a weak government that regulated rather than encouraged new technologies. Our new government is more encouraging."
It comes after Bitcoin enjoyed a post-election boom with Donald Trump back on the road to the White House. Despite some early skepticism from the former and future POTUS, he's since adopted cryptocurrency in a big way.
Looking ahead, Draper told Benzinga how Bitcoin is a 'long-term' trend: "Bitcoin is just better technology than using banks and governments as the trusted third party. It is transparent, global, open, keeps perfect records, etcetera."
Hyping the benefits of Bitcoin, Draper continued: "It will make the world wealthier. When retailers (for currency) and governments (for taxes) realize that Bitcoin will save them money on each transaction, then there will be a great incentive for everyone to use Bitcoin."
Seeing a milestone $250,000 in the not-so-distant future, he concluded: "Assuming a standard supply and demand curve, if there is a big buyer like that, the price will continue to rise. I think 2025 is the year Bitcoin will finally hit my mark of $250,000."
Even though Draper has been wrong before, there's definitely a renewed interest in Bitcoin. MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor shared a November post confirming that the company had acquired $5.4 billion worth of Bitcoin - making it the digital currency's single biggest purchase yet.
