Donald Trump secured the presidential nomination in November, sparking a frenzy of bitcoin price predictions, ranging from a modest $130,000 to an incredible $49 million per coin.
Top Minds Predict Bitcoin's Price Trajectory
A black swan event is a rare and unpredictable event to such an extent that no one foresees it, but its impact is immensely profound and significant.
The election of a pro-bitcoin US president – someone who just three years ago called this dominant cryptocurrency a "scam" – would fall squarely into the black swan category.
Adding to this is the historic approval of a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in January and the halving event in April, resulting in a perfect storm creating one of the strongest cryptocurrency bull markets, with bitcoin (BTC) reaching a high of $108,135 on December 17, according to data from Coingecko.
Donald Trump's resounding victory on November 5 has sparked all sorts of predictions about the price of bitcoin (BTC) for various reasons, leading to price forecasts for 2025 as low as $130,000 per bitcoin to as high as $49 million per bitcoin by 2045.
Pragmatists
Bitcoin peaked at around $44,000 in 2023 before soaring to over $108,000 earlier this month - a price increase of 145%.
If 2025 generates similar returns, we should expect a price of around $265,000. Thus, lower predictions than that benchmark could be considered more cautious estimates.
Bitwise: Digital asset management company Bitwise predicts that BTC will trade "above $200,000" by 2025 and four years later in 2029, it "will surpass the $18 trillion gold market and trade over $1 million for each bitcoin."
However, the company has issued a warning that could push the 2025 forecast number to over half a million.
Bitwise stated: "If the US government implements the proposal to establish a strategic reserve fund of one million bitcoins, then $200,000 will become $500,000 or more."
The firm explained that record ETF capital flows, the bitcoin halving event (which reduces supply), and increased demand from institutions and governments are the key factors behind the company's prediction.
Vaneck: Asset manager Vaneck made a more modest prediction, limiting estimates to $180,000 in the first quarter of 2025, along with a drop to $54,000 thereafter.
"At the peak of the cycle, we predict the price of bitcoin will reach around $180,000," the firm said. "After this first peak, we predict BTC will retreat 30%," the firm added.
Like Bitwise, Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at Vaneck, points out that his team has a model that combines strategic bitcoin reserve scenarios to generate much higher price estimates - $3 million by 2050.
"We have a model that assumes that by 2050... bitcoin will become a reserve asset used in global trade and held by global central banks with a very modest weighting of 2%," Sigel said. "In that model, we set a price target of $3 million for bitcoin."
Bernstein: Gautam Chhugani, a senior analyst at brokerage firm Bernstein, predicted the price of bitcoin to be $200,000 in June and doubled that prediction in November.
"We are entering a phase where we expect curiosity to turn into pain for those shorting bitcoin," Chhugani and his team wrote in a note to clients. "Bitcoin reaching $100,000 seems very close and our bitcoin target of $200,000 [by the end of] 2025 is no longer a fantasy," the team said.
Peter Brandt: In February, renowned chart trader Peter Brandt, who has over 750,000 followers on his X account, predicted that the price of bitcoin would reach $200,000 by August or September 2025.
Brandt primarily relies on charts and technical analysis to make predictions – studying market data to identify trends and patterns.
Right after the US presidential election, Brandt lowered that estimate to "between $130,000 and $150,000" for the period from August to September 2025, but also expects the price of bitcoin to reach $125,000 by January 1, 2025.
Brandt tweeted: "Based on the developments from January to March 2024, with Bayesian probability 'time/price' 'in advance', the price may reach $125,000 by New Year's."
In other words, he relied on bitcoin's previous price surge in the spring to make predictions for the new year 2025.
Nic Carter: In an interview with Bloomberg Crypto, General Partner of Castle Island Ventures, Nic Carter declined to provide a short-term BTC price target but expects a long-term price of $900,000 assuming Bitcoin equals the market capitalization of gold.
Bitcoin and gold have market capitalizations of approximately $2 trillion and $18 trillion, respectively, at the time of reporting.
Carter said: "In the long run, I expect the price of bitcoin to equal the market capitalization of gold, meaning the price of bitcoin will be $900,000 per coin."
Fidelity Investments: Like Carter, Jurrien Timmer, global macro director of Fidelity Investments, has not publicly shared a price prediction but posted an interesting chart on X, showing that the power law curve of bitcoin appears to suggest that the price of BTC will reach $1 million by 2035. The power law is a specific type of relationship between two variables.
Timmer said: "If the power law of the bitcoin network is expanding (amplified by real interest rates and money supply) is the best way to value this most attractive asset, then bitcoin is right in its reasonable value range."
Timmer has been misquoted as predicting that the price of bitcoin will reach $1 billion by 2038.
Tommy Lee: Co-founder of investment research firm Fundstrat, Tommy Lee, previously predicted the price of BTC would be $150,000 by 2025. Recently, Lee raised that prediction to $250,000 in a podcast episode with Anthony Scaramucci, founder of asset management company Skybridge Capital.
Lee said: "In the next 12 months, I believe the price could reach $250,000, even very likely, based on the current price cycle."
He explained that his estimate is based on the Bitcoin halving event in April, but currently with the emergence of a pro-crypto administration, that number could be even higher.
"Because the new administration operates on a pro-bitcoin platform, I think the possibility that the US not only legalizes bitcoin but also turns it into a strategic reserve asset will increase... the potential price scenarios for bitcoin," Lee explained.
The Moonshot
Futurist Peter Diamandis – who recently ironically predicted that the price of BTC would be $300,000 – defines a breakthrough as "greater or better by 10 times when everyone else is pursuing incremental change."
Moonshot predictions are more optimistic estimates, surpassing the previously referenced threshold of $265,000.
Michael Saylor: Bitcoin advocate Michael Saylor, chairman of Microstrategy, the world's largest bitcoin-holding company, predicted the price of BTC would reach $13 million by 2045 in his keynote speech at the Bitcoin conference in July in Nashville, Tennessee.
Saylor recently explained his reasoning for that long-term estimate on the popular podcast Impact Theory.
"I made that forecast in Nashville in July this year and it's based on the Bitcoin 24 model," Saylor said. "The Bitcoin 24 model is an open-source macro model of Bitcoin adoption and macroeconomic growth over the next 21 years."
In short, the model assumes a price growth rate of 60% with a 20% drop rate over 21 years, yielding an average annual return (ARR) of 29%, resulting in a price of approximately $13 million per coin over 21 years.
To be clear, the $13 million price is the base scenario. The more cautious bear market scenario would yield a much lower estimate of $3 million, while the bull market scenario would provide an astonishing BTC price of $49 million.
The 59-year-old billionaire said the model is available on Github and anyone can download and manipulate it.
Robert Kiyosaki: The author of the book Rich Dad Poor Dad and entrepreneur Robert Kiyosaki endorsed Saylor's $13 million prediction and offered his own forecasts, citing the potential for AI to destroy the fiat currency system, as attorney Jim Rickard hinted in his book "Money GPT."
"It's scary because AI will shake up the currency world," Kiyosaki posted on X in September. "The good news is, Jim Rickard's prediction means bitcoin could soon reach $500,000 in 2025 and $1 million by 2030."
He reiterated that prediction at the end of November after Trump was elected.
Samson Mow: CEO of JAN3, Samson Mow is no stranger to seven-figure bitcoin price predictions. His company focuses on bitcoin adoption at the national level, an endeavor that is likely shaping his larger estimates.
Mow has predicted a bitcoin price target of $1 million before and after the US presidential election, most recently in a podcast episode in November.
"This is the premise behind the $1 million bitcoin call," Mow said. "It won't be a gradual, slow increase to $1 million per coin, but a very short and violent volatility that takes us there in a matter of weeks to months."
Like Kiyosaki, Mow sees the ultimate failure of the fiat money system as the final catalyst for bitcoin's price surge.
Mow said: "If you look at the failures of fiat currencies, they don't fail gradually but fail catastrophically."
Previously, he described a concept called "dollar-sat parity" in which one satoshi or "sat" – one hundred millionth of a bitcoin and the smallest unit of the cryptocurrency – would be worth one dollar, meaning one bitcoin would be valued at $100 million.
"Assuming we have dollar-sat parity," Mow said in another podcast. "At that point, the market capitalization of Bitcoin would be $2.1 trillion."
Jack Mallers: The CEO of Strike, Jack Mallers reiterated the bitcoin price prediction for 2026 of "$250,000 to $1 million" in a podcast interview with Anthony Scaramucci.
"I think we will witness one of the largest asset bubbles in human history," Mallers said. "Domestic debt to GDP is nearly 130%, global debt to GDP is over 300%, and therefore there is a loss that must be realized and the question is where we will realize that loss."
Ultimately, Mallers believes that governments will just need to print more money to pay off debts, causing inflation and devaluation of currencies. Bitcoin, unlike fiat money, will be the only global currency that maintains its value.
"If America steps in and buys four million bitcoins, I think bitcoin will easily reach a million," Mallers said. "If not... then $250,000 seems quite reasonable."
Cathy Wood: The CEO of technology investment firm Ark Investment Management, Catherine Wood, recently provided CNBC with the basis and bullish case for the company's price prediction.
"We have a target for 2030, in our base case of around $650,000, in our bullish case, between $1 million and $1.5 million," Wood explained. Like many others, she believes these forecasts are due to Wall Street's greater interest and a more favorable regulatory environment after Trump takes office.
Ark's 2022 chart shows similar figures to Wood's recent forecasts but includes an analysis of bitcoin's penetration rate across eight specific use cases that Ark used to make its estimates. Some of those use cases include BTC's role as digital gold, a strategic reserve asset, and currency for emerging markets.
Max Keiser: The famous bitcoin advocate Max Keiser, who is also an advisor to President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele, recently raised his price prediction from $220,000 to $2.2 million per coin, citing the increasing usage of cryptocurrency by nations and noting that like Mallers, fiat money will inevitably lose value.
Keiser said in an interview, explaining how central banks cause inflation by increasing the money supply: "With bitcoin, you will definitely see purchasing power increase over time, whereas with fiat money like the US dollar, you will definitely see purchasing power decrease over time."
He added: "The supply of fiat money is increasing [annually] by an average of 15% globally."
El Salvador, where Keiser currently resides, has accumulated 6,002 BTC worth nearly $600,000,000 at current prices.
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