Add another robust bitcoin (BTC-USD) price prediction to the mix from a crypto industry insider — $500,000.
Read more: Bitcoin: 74 questions answered
“This year is probably going to end at this $22,000 to $25,000 range [for bitcoin] and next year $30,000 to $35,000 and then we will break out to these new high levels that you are talking about,” Celsius Network co-founder and CEO Alexi Mashinsky told Yahoo Finance Live when asked if bitcoin was on a collision course to reach $500,000. Celsius, a crypto loan company, tapped into the renewed bitcoin fever to raise $20 million via an equity crowdfunding in August to support its operations.
Mashinsky contends that the supply is so scarce for bitcoin — and demand so great — that up is the only likely direction for the crypto to head over time.
Judging by the action of late in bitcoin, other investors agree with Mashinsky’s thinking.
Bitcoin prices surged beyond the $20,000 mark this week and hit fresh record highs. On Thursday, prices crept to about $23,000. Year-to-date bitcoin prices are up about 224%.
The sizable year-end move in bitcoin is giving some investors in the space a flashback to the big run-up seen in 2017. Bitcoin prices surged to $17,000 by mid December 2017, only to plunge to $3,100 or so a year later as speculators were crushed under the weight of their own greed and a raft of unfriendly news.
But industry pros say this time is different because of newfound institutional demand for bitcoin. The buying, pros think, only supports the view of bitcoin as a credible alternative to fiat currencies.
This month, insurance giant MassMutal unveiled a $100 million investment in bitcoin for its general investment account. PayPal continues to buy up bitcoin to support the recent launch of the capability to buy, sell and trade cryptocurrency from a PayPal account.
“Bitcoin is for everyone,” longtime bitcoin bull Mike Novogratz told Yahoo Finance Live. “Everyone should put 2% to 3% of their net worth in bitcoin and look at it in five years, and it’s going to be a whole lot more.”
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
What’s hot from Sozzi:
Melinda Gates: we are giving $250 million more to the COVID-19 relief effort
Olympics great Michael Phelps: the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t been all smiles for me
Watch Yahoo Finance’s live programming on Verizon FIOS channel 604, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Samsung TV, Pluto TV, and YouTube. Online catch Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, SmartNews, LinkedIn, and reddit.