Two European Central Bank officials have taken the cryptoverse by storm after saying an eight-figure price target for Bitcoin is attainable. The officials recently agreed that the price of the flagship crypto could hit as high as $10 million per coin.
ECB Says Bitcoin Reaching $10M Is Achievable
The ECB’s paper, titled “The Distributional Consequences of Bitcoin,” authored by Ulrich Bindseil and Jürgen Schaaf, has triggered a fervent reaction from the BTC community.
The authors claimed Bitcoin has moved from its original vision as a decentralized payment system to primarily an investment asset. This argument is supported by the increasing support for Bitcoin from high-profile figures such as Larry Fink, the CEO of Blackrock—the world’s largest asset manager—and Galaxy’s billionaire founder and CEO Mike Novogratz, who consider Bitcoin a pure investment asset. Their view is that Bitcoin’s fixed supply and rising demand will prop up its price, similar to gold.
However, ECB officials believe Bitcoin could reach astronomical heights of $10 million per BTC. “While the current market value of a Bitcoin is in the range of USD 50,000-60,000, it could be argued that any price for Bitcoin is equally plausible, including 10 million or more,” Bindseil and Schaaf posited.
However, the authors warn that Bitcoin’s continued rise in value could lead to adverse economic consequences if it is not justified by the underlying fundamentals. They claim that the benchmark crypto doesn’t improve the economy’s productive capacity, and any wealth accrued by Bitcoin holders comes at the expense of others in society.
“In any case, current non-holders should realize that they have compelling reasons to oppose Bitcoin and advocate for legislation against it, aiming to prevent Bitcoin prices from rising or to see Bitcoin disappear altogether. Latecomers and non-holders and their political representatives should emphasize that the idea of Bitcoin as an investment relies on redistribution at their expense,” they added.
Bitcoin Envisioned To Hit $1 Million This Decade
Several prominent crypto industry pundits, including ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood and MicroStrategy, have previously predicted Bitcoin’s path to at least $1 million by 2030. The top crypto’s stratospheric rally would be largely driven by inflows into spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs), clearer regulations, and lower interest rates.
Clearer rules of the road would give both institutional and everyday investors more confidence to invest, while the lower borrowing rates might make BTC more attractive compared to traditional risk-off assets such as cash and bonds. Tuur Demeester, a long-time Bitcoin analyst and board member at the Texas Bitcoin Foundation, warned that the ECB paper’s negative portrayal of Bitcoin could justify severe crypto regulations, including potential bans.
In the meantime, prominent Bitcoin maximalist Max Keiser has speculated that Bitcoin is gearing up for a meteoric ascent to $220,000 in the near term.
