- Bitcoin could top $1 million per coin by 2030, according to Cathie Wood's Ark Invest.
- Network upgrades, and growing adoption by countries and institutions are factors that could help it flourish, the firm's research showed.
- Bitcoin mining will encourage and generate cleaner solutions, Ark said.
Famed stock-picker Cathie Wood's Ark Invest has another bold prediction for where bitcoin is headed, even as the price struggles at multi-month lows.
Bitcoin's price could exceed $1 million by 2030 as investors remain focused on its long-term value, according to the investment firm.
The top cryptocurrency's market capitalization is still only a fraction of total global asset values, and is likely to scale as other countries follow El Salvador in adopting it as legal tender, Ark analyst Yassine Elmandjra wrote in the firm's Big Ideas report published Tuesday.
"According to our estimates, the price of one bitcoin could exceed $1 million by 2030," he said.
Bitcoin has taken a bit of a beating in recent days, sinking to a six-month low of around $33,000, on expectations of tighter Federal Reserve policy. It was trading at $37,926 in European morning trading on Tuesday, and is down 18% so far in January, according to CoinGecko data.
According to Ark's research, information on blockchain networks shows at least 13.5 million bitcoins haven't been moved in more than 155 days, suggesting a long-term holding behavior pattern.
Moreover, bitcoin's annual settlement volume has surpassed Visa's, with more than $13.1 trillion of value being settled on the network in 2021.
Other developments that could encourage wider use of bitcoin are the Taproot upgrade, the first change to its protocol since July 2017, and the transaction speed-boosting Lightning Network, Ark said.
Bitcoin attraction among institutions is also broadening among players including Grayscale, Block.one, MicroStrategy, and Tesla after the arrival of more regulated products and corporate adoption, the research showed. 8% of bitcoin's circulating supply is now held by exchange-traded products, corporations, and nation-states, according to the analyst.
Separately, the investment firm believes that the conversation on bitcoin's negative environmental impact seems ill-informed.
Bitcoin mining, the system that adds new coins to the blockchain, could actually benefit the energy industry as it incentivizes cleaner solutions, Ark said.
Bitcoin mining machines around the world reportedly consume as much power per year as Bangladesh, a country of over 160 million people This apparent toll on sustainability has often stirred debate about owning and trading cryptocurrencies.
Billionaire Bill Gates, an outspoken climate change advocate, has criticized bitcoin's environmental impact, saying it uses "more electricity per transaction than any other method known to mankind."
But to Ark's Elmandjra, bitcoin is the asset most compatible with ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance) norms.
"Our research suggests that bitcoin has the potential to transform monetary history by providing financial freedom and empowerment in a fair, global, and distributed way," Elmandjra wrote.
In September, Cathie Wood predicted bitcoin will soar to $500,000 in five years. She also touted a 60-40 bitcoin-to-ether crypto portfolio.
Via PakApNews