Experts Say Bitcoin Could Hit $100,000 In 2022. Here’s What InveIt’s been a rocky start to the year for Bitcoin, but experts still say it will hit $100,000 — and that it’s more a matter of when, not if.
Bitcoin’s price plunged down to $37,000 Thursday after a brief rally the day prior, primarily driven by the Federal Reserve’s announcement that it is raising its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point. The Fed signaled that it will continue raising rates aggressively in the coming months and begin reducing asset holdings on its $9 trillion balance sheet in June.
Investors continue to wrestle with concerns over rising inflation, geopolitical tensions, and the possibility of tighter monetary policy by the U.S. Federal Reserve. The crypto market has increasingly tracked the stock market in recent months, which makes it even more intertwined with global economic factors.
With no end in sight, the war, inflation, and shifting monetary policy in the U.S. will likely continue to drive more volatility in the coming weeks and months, experts say.
“The overall market has noticed the high correlation to Bitcoin and the general equities markets,” says Armando Aguilar, head of alternative strategies and research for Ledn, a digital asset savings and credit platform. “The S&P 500 and NASDAQ have had the largest correlations to Bitcoin with 0.88% and 0.91%, respectively. A correlation of one means that they move equally one to the other.”
Bitcoin has only been above $45,000 for a few short stretches over the past four months, and hasn’t been above $50,000 since Dec. 25, 2021. Still, Bitcoin has stayed above its 6-month low below $34,000 in late January. Amid the ups and downs, Bitcoin’s current price is a long way off from the latest all-time high it hit in November, when it went over $68,000. But even with the recent decline in price, Bitcoin is still more than twice as valuable as it was just a couple years ago. For Bitcoin, these kinds of ups and downs are nothing new.
Bitcoin Price Predictions
It was easy to predict a $100,000 Bitcoin price late last year, coming off its latest all-time high in November. With Bitcoin’s big fall since then, the prediction game is even trickier.
The most extreme crypto skeptics say Bitcoin will tank to as low as $10,000 in 2022, but a middle ground might be to say the cryptocurrency can still climb to $100,000 like many experts predicted late last year — just on a slower timeline.
“The most knowledgeable educators in the space are predicting $100,000 Bitcoin in Q1 2022 or sooner,” Kate Waltman, a New York-based certified public accountant who specializes in crypto, told us back in November 2021.
But now, bullish experts are re-evaluating the crypto industry altogether as major corporations like Nike and other big brands are looking at ways to monetize their products in the digital metaverse. The rise of metaverse games, worlds, products, and experiences is increasing the popularity of altcoins, which has changed investors’ sentiments about Bitcoin (known as the original crypto).
Many experts are hesitant to predict a number and a date, but rather point to the trend of Bitcoin increasing its value over time. Investors should expect a “pretty sustainable” rise in Bitcoin’s long-term value driven by organic market movement, with the $100,000 threshold in near-sight, predicted Jurrien Timmer, director of global macro at Fidelity Investments, last October.
“What I expect from Bitcoin is volatility short-term and growth long-term,” says Kiana Danial, founder of Invest Diva and author of “Cryptocurrency Investing For Dummies.”
Here are some more predictions we found, ranked from low to high over the next year:
Ian Balina
Point of View: Bitcoin investor and founder of crypto research and media company Token Metrics
Prediction: Bitcoin can go to $100,000-$150,000, but the timeline is unclear
Why: Bitcoin is in a bearish sentiment cycle, but the total crypto market and other crypto asset classes are not. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, but now others have surpassed it in innovation when it comes to what experts call “Web 3” — aka the new internet built on blockchain. The release of new altcoins and hype about the metaverse will continue to drive the demand for crypto, and Bitcoin will therefore bounce back eventually.
Matthew Hyland
Point of View: Technical analysis and blockchain data analyst
Prediction: Bitcoin can reach $100,000 in 2022
Why: The price of Bitcoin in January 2022 is almost equal to its price in January 2021, but there’s a new demand for altcoins. There’s also an ongoing trend of Bitcoin supply leaving major exchanges (presumably to be stored in offline crypto wallets), Hyland said in a tweet. He also recently tweeted that a dip below $40,000 could lead to “free fall” into a Bitcoin bear market.
Robert Breedlove
Point of View: Founder and CEO of the digital assets marketing and consulting firm Parallax Digital
Prediction: $307,000 by October 2021 (now passed), and $12.5 million by 2031
Why: Inflationary pressures after COVID-19 will drive interest in cryptocurrency, pushing the value of Bitcoin up higher than previous projections estimated, Breedlove said in an interview earlier this year. Known as more of a philosopher type among crypto enthusiasts, Breedlove speaks often about the broader social implications of crypto as a form of more transparent, decentralized currency — but his price predictions haven’t exactly been spot-on.
Big financial institutions have made their own predictions, as well, with JPMorgan predicting a long-term high of $146,000 and Bloomberg predicting it could hit $400,000 if the currency climbs at rates comparable to the past.
*All text credits to Megan DeMatteo
