Venture capitalist Tim Draper says Bitcoin will reach $250,000 by the middle of 2023, despite 2022 being a challenging year for the crypto market, characterized by industry failures and extreme price volatility.
Bitcoin’s price fell to $15 625 in early November after Binance backed out of the deal to acquire FTX. It was the first time the coin had plummeted below $16,000 since November 2020 and marked the biggest plunge in almost five months.
Strategists predicted a lower drop to $9,000, a far cry from the optimist view of Bitcoin hitting $70 000 that many had during the boom last year.
“This is another one of those catalysts,” Bob Iaccino, Path Trading Partners co-founder and chief market strategist, said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if Bitcoin went as low as $9,000, which for me, as someone who got out of Bitcoin and is waiting to get in again, would be a positive.”
However, the cryptocurrency finally surpassed the $17,000 barrier on Dec. 5 and is now heading to $17,600. As crypto news reported, the global crypto market capitalization also increased 1.58 % to $865.67 billion, and the total crypto market volume grew 5.91% to $32.24 billion.
VC’s Prediction Still At $250k
Draper had earlier predicted that Bitcoin would top $250,000 by the end of 2022, but at the Web Summit tech conference in Lisbon last month, he said it would take until June 2023 for this to happen.
When asked if his opinion remained the same, viewing the FTX debacle, Draper told CNBC via email, “I have extended my prediction by six months. $250k is still my number.” “I expect a flight to quality and decentralized crypto like Bitcoin and for some of the weaker coins to become relics,”
Considering Bitcoin’s current price at $17k, it will take more than a 14x rally to reach the $250k mark.
An analysis by Finder’s panel predicts that Bitcoin (BTC) will be worth US$21,344 by the end of 2022 before rising to $79,193 by 2025.
Finder measures expert predictions for the future of Bitcoin’s price through 2 surveys. A weekly survey with a rotating panel of 5 fintech specialists is asked whether they are bullish, bearish, or neutral on BTC for the two weeks ahead. A more extensive quarterly survey consists of a panel of 55 industry specialists.
At its highest, the panel sees BTC reaching $24,013 in 2022, but it also predicts a bottoming-out to just $15,283 before the year ends.
While Draper remains optimistic about future Bitcoin prices, some players are either looking towards a further drop or are uncertain. In GlobalBlock analyst Marcus Sotiriou’s opinion, the crypto market is still in the woods. “The severity of the contagion could have damaging effects on the crypto ecosystem.”
Spring Capital co-founder David Klinger has a long-term pessimistic view of Bitcoin’s price, as he expects the crypto to be worth just $2,000 by 2030.
By Business2Community’s prediction, Bitcoin will most likely drop to $15,000 in the short term before rebounding to a maximum of $20,000 by the end of the year, although 2023 will see it testing new highs and be worth $75,000 and hopefully rise to $90,000 in 2024.
Women Might Be Bitcoin’s Secret to Breaking Out Next Year
In Tim Draper’s opinion, retailers might be the key to boosting Bitcoin’s rise, and by statistics, women control 80% of retail spending.
“I assume that, since women control 80% of retail spending and only 1 in 7 Bitcoin wallets are currently held by women, the dam is about to break,” Draper told CNBC. “Retailers will save roughly 2% on every purchase made in bitcoin vs. dollars,” he added. “Once retailers realize that 2% can double their profits, bitcoin will be ubiquitous.”
A survey conducted for CNBC and Acorns by Momentive revealed that twice as many men as women invest in digital assets (16% of men vs. 7% of women).
A study from GOBankingRates carried out earlier this year showed that just 15% of women invest in crypto, compared to a little over 38% of men. More specifically, an eToro survey showed that only 15% of Bitcoin investors are female.
However, the percentages show a tremendous increase in the rate of female investors in 2021, by around 200%.
“When people can buy their food, clothing, and shelter all in bitcoin, they will have no use for centralized banking fiat dollars,” Draper said, adding that bitcoin halving- a process that cuts miner’s rewards in half and occurs every four years- will also jumpstart the cryptocurrency.
