Bitcoin could be worth $10 million each one day. But be careful what you wish for.
Even though Bitcoin (BTC 1.09%) is struggling to stay above the $60,000 mark, there are plenty of investors who think that the price of Bitcoin could hit $100,000 by the end of the year. That's when the price of Bitcoin could really explode in value, eventually soaring as high as $10 million per coin.
Personal finance guru Robert Kiyosaki, who is best known for his book Rich Dad Poor Dad, is one of those investors who thinks that the price of Bitcoin could skyrocket by 16,000%. In July, he predicted that Bitcoin would eventually hit a price of $10 million. Let's take a closer look at why he's so bullish on Bitcoin.
Bitcoin's $10 million price scenario
The key issue, as Kiyosaki sees it, is the mounting U.S. debt problem. Right now, the U.S. has $35 trillion in debt, and that figure increases by $1 trillion about every 100 days. At some point, that debt load is simply unsustainable. To pay off all that debt, the U.S. may need to print vast sums of money, and that creates the potential for a disastrous hyperinflationary spiral.
Image source: Getty Images.
Long story short: It could all end horribly with a dollar collapse, and the search for a new store of value to take its place. According to Kiyosaki, the only potential replacements for the U.S. dollar right now are silver, gold, and Bitcoin. Most likely, Kiyosaki says, it will be Bitcoin. And that's what is going to pump Bitcoin to the moon.
After all, there's a finite supply of Bitcoin. Only 21 million coins will ever exist (about 19.7 million are in circulation now), and there's nothing that anyone can do about it because of the algorithm that controls new Bitcoin creation. You can't just print more Bitcoin like you can print more dollars, and that's what should give people trust in Bitcoin as a long-term store of value.
Is Bitcoin "perfect money"?
Kiyosaki is not alone in his $10 million price prediction for Bitcoin. Michael Saylor, the founder and executive chairman of MicroStrategy Inc. (MSTR -0.11%), also thinks that Bitcoin is headed to the moon. In June, he put out a $10 million price prediction for Bitcoin. One month later, at the Bitcoin 2024 event in Nashville, Tennessee, he boosted that prediction to $13 million.
Saylor's arguments are similar, in many ways, to Kiyosaki's. He refers to Bitcoin as "perfect money." This is in sharp contrast to the U.S. dollar, which he deems "imperfect money." What makes Bitcoin so perfect? A key factor is its finite supply. Another factor is the fact that Bitcoin is a completely decentralized cryptocurrency, meaning that no sovereign government or central bank controls it.
How realistic is a $10 million price for Bitcoin?
While just about everyone agrees that Bitcoin has untapped upside potential, there is some disagreement about how much higher Bitcoin can go, as well as how long it will take to get there. If you listen to Kiyosaki or Saylor, you might conclude that Bitcoin will explode in value within a matter of just a few years.
But remember -- people have been warning about a calamitous U.S. debt collapse for nearly 35 years now. Somehow, the problem just keeps getting kicked down the road. So maybe the moment of reckoning -- the moment when "perfect money" replaces "imperfect money" -- will not occur in our lifetime.
Moreover, there's something about the $10 million price tag for Bitcoin that seems wildly implausible. It would imply a valuation north of $200 trillion. That is twice as high as the value of the entire global stock market. By some estimates, a $10 million price tag would require as much as 25% of the world's wealth to be invested in Bitcoin. So be careful what you wish for. If the price of Bitcoin has skyrocketed to $10 million, it probably means the value of everything else in your portfolio has fallen to zero.
Bitcoin for the long haul
While I'm not quite ready to jump on the $10 million bandwagon, I am bullish on Bitcoin's long-term prospects. I still think Bitcoin will double in value by the end of 2025. So if you're planning for the long haul, it might make sense to add a little sliver of Bitcoin to your portfolio, just in case its price really takes off.
Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
