Bitcoin price prediction 2030–2050: Will BTC reach $1m?

As the first cryptocurrency, bitcoin (BTC) has the biggest market capitalisation in the crypto market, as of 14 June 2022.

Its narrative managed to move far beyond being “a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash” to becoming a store of value and compared to gold as a hedge against inflation. 

In 2021, BTC’s value surged from $29,374.15 on 1 January to $46,306.45 on 31 December, managing to surpass the $60,000 mark twice. 

While it’s trading below $23,000 at the time of writing (14 June) – more than 50% down year-to-date (YTD) – questions surrounding the cryptocurrency’s future continue to arise. Will bitcoin go up in the long-term, and what are the bitcoin price projections for the decades ahead? 

Bitcoin outlook 2022: Will BTC hit the bottom and bounce back? 

While bitcoin hit the lowest level since December 2020 amid the wider cryptocurrency crash and a shift to risk-off sentiment, there still appears to be a number of bitcoin advocates willing to stick with the coin.

“In Bitcoin We Trust,” tweeted Michael Saylor, founder and CEO of MicroStrategy (MSTR), on 13 June. 

During times of stagflation, the “best investment strategy is hodl scarce, desirable property you can afford to maintain,” added Saylor. 

The number of google queries for bitcoin has surpassed 2019-2020 bear-market levels despite ongoing recession fears, wrote Glassnode co-founders in a recent tweet. Plus, the number of people interested in buying the dip has spiked, according to Santiment’s analysis, as BTC continues sliding down towards lower $20,000 levels. 

“As a crypto pioneer, I have of course seen this volatility play out before. In 2017, the value of Bitcoin fell from $20,000 to $3,000,” said Viktor Prokopenya, founder of VP Capital, in an interview with Crypto Investor.  

“Now, with the war in Ukraine and rising inflation, we are witnessing instability across all asset classes. Seasoned investors will ride out this volatility, understanding that the market will bounce back,” Prokopenya added.

After a recent flash-crash of Terra’s Luna and UST, Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, highlighted that “it's important to understand that volatility is likely to continue, and the macro situation is going to remain challenging. There is no cavalry coming to drive a V-shaped recovery.”

He added that crypto will not go anywhere and the community is resilient. However, “this does not mean the crypto market will bottom and head straight back up. It will take restructuring, a redemption cycle, consolidation, and renewed confidence in crypto. Crypto moves in cycles, and we just witnessed a big one.”

Novogratz also warned that “​​picking bottoms is dangerous and if you do scale in slowly”.

Capital.com’s chief market strategist David Jones warned that there may be a period of sideways price action for bitcoin in the medium term.

Will halving boost BTC price again?

Bitcoin has a maximum supply of 21 million tokens. As of 14 June 2022, 19 million BTC have been in circulation.

In order to reduce the rate at which new bitcoins are issued, the cryptocurrency was designed to undergo halving events roughly every four years. The events reduce the number of tokens released into circulation by half limiting their supply and making the token scarcer, thus raising its value.

Research conducted by Capital.com showed that the value of BTC enjoyed a bull market lasting between 12 and 15 months after a halving event occurred. The past three halving events that took place in 2012, 2016 and 2020 saw the BTC price surge by 9,915%, 2,949% and 665% respectively.    

Halvings tend to create buzz and excitement in crypto circles, but do they necessarily mean that bitcoin’s future price will rally?

Bitcoin’s fifth and sixth halving events, which are set to take place in 2028 and 2032, and the halving cycle around them, could be factors shaping the bitcoin price prediction 2030. 

Joe Burnett, mining analyst at Blockware Solutions, believes bitcoin’s halving sessions could be good for its future price projections. 

Other factors shaping a BTC price prediction 

In 2020 the global cryptocurrency market amounted to $1.49bn. According to Allied Market Research, by 2030 its value could grow to $4.94bn, representing a 12.8% surge. 

Meanwhile, research conducted by ResearchAndMarkets.com in December 2021 noted that the overall cryptocurrency market could rise to $2.73bn in 2025 from $1.63bn in 2021. 

Allied Market Research stressed that bitcoin would remain as the highest gainer throughout the forecast period, noting that BTC has an “untapped potential on emerging economies”.

Positive developments in the 2021 BTC cryptocurrency market space included the adoption of BTC as a legal tender by El Salvador in early September and the launch of the Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) in October.

The first ever bitcoin-linked ETF offered retail investors diversification, protection and liquidity, and a new way to get involved in the rapidly growing world of cryptocurrencies. 

DailyFX analyst Tammy Da Costa stressed that while BTC remains the “father” of cryptocurrencies, it could face much larger competition from the second-highest digital asset by market capitalisation, ethereum (ETH). 

“Due to the nature of the blockchains, the Ethereum blockchain is a more environmentally friendly option, and the unlimited supply of coins makes it a more feasible option for governments that are embracing the concept of digital assets as a potential medium of exchange, provided that there is regulatory oversight,” she told Capital.com. 

In November 2021, the Bitcoin blockchain underwent a much-anticipated upgrade known as Taproot, which made the token cheaper, more efficient and private. 

This enabled Bitcoin to run smart contracts, similarly to its rival Ethereum. Ethereum’s smart contracts allowed the platform to become the most-used blockchain, however, the Bitcoin update could also increase its daily users. 

Rising adoption rates could bode well for bitcoin’s future price. BTC is already accepted as a form of payment by 7,879 merchants as of June 2022, and this number is constantly growing.     

The coin’s value increased by 12.52% after Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted on 2 April 2021 that his electric vehicles could be purchased using the digital currency, boosting the price from $52,774.26 on 24 March 2021 to $59,384.31. Later, Tesla suspended vehicle purchases via bitcoin on concerns over the eco-unfriendly nature of its mining.

Is bitcoin a good inflation hedge?

A number of analysts have been pointing out that there are similarities between gold and BTC, which could be another factor driving the price of the cryptocurrency.

“The similarities between bitcoin and gold are difficult to ignore. Both are viewed, rightly or wrongly, as a natural hedge against inflation; there is a finite amount of both; they usually have relatively low correlations to equities and fixed income; and they act as a store of value outside of traditional systems such as governments or central banks,” said a report published by ETF Stream. 

In May 2021, this was also noted by Goldman Sachs. In October 2021, JPMorgan analysts echoed the sentiment: “Institutional investors appear to be returning to bitcoin, perhaps seeing it as a better inflation hedge than gold.” 

According to Da Costa, while comparisons of bitcoin and gold were appropriate throughout 2021, the more recent market dynamics shows cryptocurrencies also behave in line with technology stocks. 

“Throughout last year, bitcoin was seen as a potential hedge against inflation, a characteristic akin to gold. However, this narrative has shifted in the first quarter of the year as the direct correlation between cryptocurrency and tech stocks becomes more apparent,” Da Costa told Capital.com.

Blockware Solutions’ Burnett said BTC can be treated as a highly volatile long-term savings account, but not an investment as it offers no potential future cash flows. 

Bitcoin price prediction 2030 and beyond

As of 14 June, algorithm-based forecasting service Wallet Investor gave a bullish view on the price of bitcoin, noting that it is an “awesome long-term investment”. Based on its analysis of the cryptocurrency’s past performance, the forecasting service suggested the price could reach $43,684.40 in a year and reach $114,682 in five years’ time.

Giving longer-term price targets for bitcoin in 2030, DigitalCoinPrice suggested the coin could surpass the $100,000 level and trade at an average price of $105,085.85. 

While DigitalCoin did not provide a bitcoin price prediction for 2040, or 2050, it noted that the coin could be worth $118,424.61 in 2031. 

Meanwhile, Price Prediction gave an extremely bullish bitcoin price prediction 2030. It estimated the BTC price could move up to $798,474.46 in 2030 and hit $1m in 2031, trading at an average price of $1,148,946.84. 

According to Telegaon, bitcoin could trade at $557,109.22 in 2030, and more than double by 2040, trading at $1,253,429.23. Its bitcoin price prediction 2050 suggested BTC could hit $2,346,234.22. 

Note that algorithm-based price predictions can be wrong as they use past performance to inform their estimates. Always conduct your own due diligence before trading or investing. And never invest or trade money you cannot afford to lose. 

Analyst views on BTC forecast for 2030

A panel of 35 analysts surveyed by Finder in April 2022 expected the coin to surge to $420,240 by 31 December 2030, compared to its prediction of $406,400 earlier this year.

Meanwhile, a report published by ARK Invest analyst Yassine Elmandjra in mid-January 2022 gave an even more positive outlook for bitcoin in 2030, expecting the price to reach $1m.

CoinLoan founder and CEO Alex Faliushin agreed with ARK Investment’s bullish outlook, noting that solid cryptocurrency regulation will be required to attract more institutional money into the space and boost the price of bitcoin by 2030.  

“In 2030, it could be very realistic that BTC will reach $1,000,000 per BTC, given that many funds are just starting to pay attention to it and many can't even hold it on their balance sheet due to regulations,” Faliushin told Capital.com.

“When the whole industry will be more transparent and regulated, we are expecting to see new money coming into the market. This could lead to a sharp price rise,” he concluded. 

Mike McGlone, senior commodity strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, told Capital.com that limited supply and rising demand would suggest a bullish bitcoin projection. The analyst expects that by 2030, the $100,000 mark will become a support rather than a resistance on the BTC/USD price chart.

“The bottom line is that supply is declining, by code and demand, and adoption is rising. I expect those trends to continue for bitcoin, which is well on its way to becoming the digital collateral benchmark in a world going that way,” McGlore added. 

HOKK Finance’s Basa, on the other hand, gave a more bullish bitcoin price projection. He expected the token to reach $1m in the next eight years. 

“I think about it like this: A whole new generation of young people are going to be introduced to easier ways to buy bitcoin and interact with crypto. They’ll be faced with a much higher cost of living, US debt, inflation and a housing market almost out of reach,” he told Capital.com. 

“If they learn about bitcoin, and how it’s really their money, they are going to opt out of investing in the most common stocks and look at an asset that just keeps growing and growing due to its limited supply and decentralised nature.”

Bitcoin long-term forecast: Overtaking fiat money?

In terms of the bitcoin price predictions for 2030-2050, it’s extremely difficult to estimate the value of the coin so far ahead, as various factors could drastically change the landscape of the cryptocurrency markets. 

Yet, some believe that bitcoin could replace fiat currency by 2050, as revealed by a panel of 42 cryptocurrency analysts surveyed by Finder in 2021. 

Over half (54%) of respondents said that the digital token had potential to overtake global finance in just below 30 years. Others had an even more positive outlook, expecting the token to overtake fiat money by 2040 and even 2035.  

Please note that price predictions and analysts’ views can be wrong. Forecasts shouldn’t be used as a substitute for your own research. Always conduct your own due diligence before investing. And never invest or trade money you cannot afford to lose.

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