The head of business development at cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, Dan Held, has revealed he believes a “perfect storm” could help the price of bitcoin hit $1 million next year, basing his prediction on various factors lining up perfectly.
Speaking to Altcoin Daily, Held said that the COVID-19 pandemic has been hurting the economy as “tons of businesses got shut down.” Governments, he said, are “engaged in massive money printing operations” which are creating a lack of faith in the institution of government. He added:
So pretty much a perfect storm for Bitcoin because Bitcoin was built and planted during the 2008 financial crisis to solve a problem of trust and storing value with governments.
Held added that people can now “could trust in mathematics and game theory instead of having to trust a politician and their body movements.” The infrastructure built around BTC and its adoption by institutional investors could fuel what he called a “supercycle” that would see the price of the cryptocurrency soar.
Per his words, bitcoin’s halving, which cut block rewards in half from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC per block occurred earlier this year, and at a macroeconomic environment “we’ve never been in a worse spot.” These factors combined make a bullish case for bitcoin, as demand is soaring while supply is dropping.
[Bitcoin] is being recognized as a global store of value, a gold 2.0. It’s being recognized by institutions. It’s becoming more liquid. More services are being built, a super robust trading infrastructure.
Held, as first reported by The Daily Hodl, pointed out there are now options and futures markets that are very developed, and did not exist in the 2017 bull run. Custody solutions have also been built, so now everything’s “been built-out and ready to go for a massive amount of money to come in.”
The Kraken executive also pointed out PayPal has surprised the cryptocurrency industry by letting users buy BTC, BCH, ETH, and LTC on its platform. Combining growing demand with the “macro backdrop of the world economy” and bitcoin’s reduce supply means there’s potential for “a Bitcoin supercycle,” he said.
Per his words, bitcoin is like earthquake insurance: it’s neglect at first but everyone considers buying it once there is an earthquake. He added:
In 2021, we could hit $1 million. It could maybe hit it. There’s a crazy chance it could hit a million if the whole world starts to believe in Bitcoin, we could maybe hit that.
Held also made a more modest price prediction, that the price of BTC could end up between $100,000 and $250,000 next week. Either way, he said, “we’re all going to the moon.”
Featured image via Unsplash.
