Bitcoin has been somewhat hogging the limelight so far in 2021, as prices soared to record levels, first smashing the $50k mark, then rallying a second time to go past $60k in March.
At this stage in the game, Bitcoin has more or less shaken off its reputation as a risky or alternative investment option, as more and more major corporations and financial institutions are now including BTC as a mainstay of their long-term investment strategies.
It seems that despite more advanced coins being launched with ever more complex blockchain capabilities, the original cryptocurrency still dominates the market - despite not having the same potential as second and third-generation coins like Ethereum and Cardano. So why are big names in the finance industry flocking to invest in Bitcoin?
In the following Bitcoin price prediction for 2025 and 2030, we’ll take a closer look at what big business thinks of the token’s future potential, as well as consider how BTC measures up against rival coins when it comes to longevity. Finally, we’ll also consider technical analysis from leading crypto platforms to produce our own Bitcoin price prediction.
Bitcoin: The Original Cryptocurrency
It could be argued that Bitcoin’s dominance more or less comes down to the fact that it was the first genuinely viable cryptocurrency to be developed. Despite its being somewhat dated when it comes to technical particulars, but the time the likes of Ethereum and Cardano arrived on the scene, BTC simply held too strong a position as the market leader.
Created by the mysterious Satashi Nakamoto back in 2009, Bitcoin sought to revolutionise the world of finance by offering a secure, decentralised, peer-to-peer digital payment system that removed the need for a bank or financial institution to verify transactions.
Bitcoin was made possible thanks to its underlying blockchain technology. Whilst the concept had existed for several years before Nakamoto’s white paper, it was really Bitcoin that put the technology on the map. As the name suggests, blockchain consists of data blocks, which are verified and added by independent computers on the network.
This mechanism is powered by bitcoin miners - powerful computers that solve complex equations to complete transactions and in turn are rewarded with BTC. Bitcoin’s architecture is, however, much more limited than many that of some later cryptocurrencies and over the years many Bitcoin price predictions have expected BTC to eventually topple. However, at the time of writing that has never come close to being a reality.
Despite many cryptocurrencies appearing more advanced on paper, Bitcoin continues to be the standard against which all other tokens are measured. Anyone who has previously researched whether to invest in Bitcoin will probably already be aware that it is also a major indicator of investor sentiment for the wider market - if Bitcoin goes up, then it often has a knock-on effect for the top altcoins.
Looking at Bitcoin’s Recent Price Performance
Whether are considering whether to invest in Bitcoin or not, you’d have to have been living under a rock not to be aware of its incredible price run throughout the first quarter of 2021 - in fact, Bitcoin has not gone more than a week without appearing in mainstream news around the world.
So far, 2021 has been one hell of a year for BTC. Having a reasonably disappointing 2020 following the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw prices sink from a high of $10,000 to just over $3,800, Bitcoin began to recover towards the end of the year and experienced a remarkable bull in December that saw prices hit $20,000.
Many analysts then expected BTC to level out, but the bull continued into 2021, with BTC first reaching the $30,000 milestone in January, before peaking at $40,500 just a few days later. The remainder of the month was a little more chaotic and eventually saw Bitcoin prices drop back to around the $30k mark. Once again, many Bitcoin price predictions had to be re-assessed after Bitcoin’s foray into unknown territory.
Following a brief downturn, which saw those fearing they had missed out on the price surge rush to invest in Bitcoin, things picked up again in February and BTC once again broke its own record by storming past $50k to reach $54,181 on the 22. Another brief downturn followed, before Bitcoin once again rallied, peaking at an incredible all-time high of $61,556.59 in the first half of March.
Is the Bitcoin Bubble About to Burst?
Bitcoin’s meteoric price increase has inevitably prompted speculation that the cryptocurrency is in a bubble that may be about to burst. Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor at the Stern School of Business, NYU, has pointed to the previous Bitcoin bubble of 2017-18, when prices surged from $1,000 to $20,000 before slumping back to $3,000.
He has also claimed that cryptocurrency, in general, is “only a play on a speculative asset bubble, worse than tulip-mania, as flowers had and still have utility. Its store of value against tail risks is unproven. And worse: some cryptos, dubbed “‘shitcoins,’ are financial scams in the first place or debased daily by their sponsor.”
However, one thing that Mr Roubini fails to acknowledge is that, whereas the 2017 Bitcoin ‘bubble’ was largely led by smaller investors who were hearing about the incredible price performance of BTC for the first time, this latest bull market has been largely driven by institutional investors.
Interest from institutional investors usually means Bitcoin being trading in much higher volumes and with larger investors much more likely to hold their tokens over a longer period - meaning that the circulating supply of BTC diminishes and, in theory, prices are more likely to increase.
“Retail investors were either less involved in this rally, or at least have so far kept their bitcoin on exchanges, while large investors increased buying and taking their bitcoin into their own custody,” according to a Chainalysis report. In a nutshell, this means that the latest BTC price rally is far more stable compared to those in the past.
Does Bitcoin Still Have The Power To Grow?
One important and often overlooked consideration for any Bitcoin price prediction is the increasing attention being paid to the power consumption of cryptocurrencies. “Bitcoin uses more electricity per transaction than any other method known to mankind,” Bill Gates recently said. “It's not a great climate thing”, he added.
The mining required to maintain the Bitcoin network requires huge amounts of energy - more so than the world's major tech companies that provide entertainment services, including the Netflix Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Google combined - all of which also require serious amounts of energy to run their platforms.
Many critics are now saying the power consumption from Bitcoin has hard to justify, given that many leading financial figures - including Warren Buffet - have deemed BTC to have no intrinsic value.
So what does this all mean for future Bitcoin price predictions? Anyone looking to invest in Bitcoin at this stage needs to be aware of its environmental impact. As big business, economies and infrastructure move to carbon neutral operations, Bitcoin’s power consumption may well prove to be its Achilles heel - especially as other cryptos are already seeking to address this as a fundamental scalability issue.
What’s next: Bitcoin Price Predictions for 2025
Everything we have discussed so far should be considered when planning to invest in Bitcoin. However, most Bitcoin price predictions - especially those from leading analysts - will already be including such issues as part of their forecasting algorithms. So what are such platforms saying about BTC’s potential over the next five years?
According to DigitalCoinPrice’s Bitcoin forecast, the price of BTC will soar to over $111k per token by the end of 2021, before experiencing somewhat undulating price movement over the next 18 months. The platform predicts that Bitcoin’s next record high will come in 2024, when the token reaches $164k. By 2025, DigitalCoinPrice expects BTC to be trading in excess of $191k, whilst not quite crossing the $200k barrier.
Even more optimistic is the Economy Forecast Agency’s Bitcoin price prediction. They have BTC potentially hitting the $200k mark as early as 2022, before going into steady decline for the rest of the year. The same pattern seems to repeat in 2023, with Bitcoin getting back to $200k early in the year, before falling again. However, by 2025, the EFA Bitcoin prediction has BTC price soaring past $250,000 per token.
Bloomberg Intelligence maintains that Bitcoin will reach at least $100,000 by 2025, and points to the increased uptake of the crypto from institutional investors as the main driver behind Bitcoin’s long-term growth.
Analysts at Bloomberg have gone on to say that that "something significant needs to go wrong to reverse Bitcoin adoption and price appreciation".
BTC at $1 Million? - Bitcoin Price Predictions for 2030
Long term Bitcoin price predictions are always going to be somewhat hit and miss. The cryptocurrency market moves very quickly and as anyone who has previously chosen to invest in Bitcoin knows, strategies often need to be adjusted at short notice. However, a few analysts and financial experts have made some bold claims about what we can expect from Bitcoin in the coming decade.
Morgan Creek Digital Assets co-founder, Anthony Pompliano, claims bitcoin could hit $500,000 by the end of the decade and has the potential to eventually reach $1m per token in 20230.
“I think that bitcoin will eventually rise to become the global reserve currency. I think bitcoin will eventually be much much larger than the gold market cap,” he told CNBC.
Kraken CEO Jesse Powell is also overwhelmingly bullish with his Bitcoin price prediction.
Mr Powell echoes Pompliano’s sentiment that Bitcoin could reach $1 million in the next decade, adding that it could even replace all of the major fiat currencies.
“We can only speculate, but when you measure Bitcoin in terms of dollars, you have to think it’s going to infinity,” he said. “The true believers will tell you that it’s going all the way to the moon, to Mars and eventually, will be the world’s currency.”
Conclusion: Should You Invest in Bitcoin?
Even after its record-breaking run in throughout the first quarter of 2021, most Bitcoin price predictions are still pointing to further growth over the next few years. There have always been concerns raised over the scalability of BTC, but to date these have had no real impact on price and Bitcoin has never come close to losing its spot as the top cryptocurrency by value and market capitalisation.
Potentially. BTC has been pegged for continued growth - especially over the longer term - and it there are few Bitcoin price predictions forecasting any major price dips on the horizon. Of course, you might want to wait it out and see if the price comes down before adding BTC to your portfolio, but then there’s every chance you will miss out on the next bull.
The bottom line is that interest from institutional investors and major corporations appears to be increasing and the majority of reliable Bitcoin price predictions believe this is enough to mitigate any shortcomings with the original cryptocurrency’s infrastructure or scalability issues.
Whether you decide to invest in Bitcoin or not depends on your individual investment goals, but most experts are now advising that portfolios should include at least a small crypto allocation.
If you do decide to invest in Bitcoin, we advise keeping an eye on certain developments - especially those related to power consumption. No one knows what the future may hold and, at the time of writing, Bitcoin seems a good long term investment. But issues like this could turn things around very quickly.
Where to Invest in Bitcoin
If you’re looking to invest in Bitcoin but are new to the cryptocurrency market, you might need some help in finding out where and how to actually acquire tokens. For the average investor, we believe that eToro has the answer to both questions.
The platform offers trading in all the leading cryptocurrencies and also contains a wealth of information, including how-tos, trading tips and market news. It also has a very accessible interface, meaning even novice users can quickly get to grips with things.
More importantly, eToro is also fully regulated by the FCA, meaning the platform adheres to certain safeguarding and security guidelines - which in turn means that you can trade on the exchange with confidence.
Is now a good time to buy Bitcoin?
Bitcoin has been trading at record-prices for most of the year thus far, prompting many investors to ponder holding back until prices come down. However, most Bitcoin price predictions are pointing to further growth - not only this year, but over the next 5, perhaps even 10 years. As such, if you do intend to invest in Bitcoin, now might be the time.
What are Bitcoin price predictions like for 2030?
Most Bitcoin price predictions for the next ten years are overwhelmingly bullish. Some experts, including Morgan Creek’s Anthony Pompliano, have gone as far to say that BTC could hit $1m over the next decade or so. Of course, such statements should be approached with some circumspect, but it could be wise to invest in Bitcoin as part of a diverse, long term strategy.
Will the Bitcoin bubble burst?
Bitcoin’s meteoric price increases in the first quarter of 2021 have inevitable draw speculation that we could be experiencing a bubble - a bubble that could eventually burst, as it did back in 2017/2018. However, most Bitcoin price predictions have noticed the increased interest from institutional investors, which makes these recent price surges far more sustainable than those of a few years ago.
Where can I invest in Bitcoin?
There are plenty of places to invest in Bitcoin online, but some exchanges are better than others. We recommend eToro for most users, as it has a highly intuitive interface, suitable for entry-level and more experienced traders, as well as plenty of learning resources and educational material.
When should I invest in Bitcoin?
Choosing when to invest in Bitcoin can be a difficult question. At the time of writing, BTC was trading at over $56,400. It might be tempting to hold out and see if the price comes down, which long-term investors may consider. However, if you’re looking for short term gains, not many Bitcoin price predictions are forecasting a drastic dip in BTC’s value before its next bull.
Will Bitcoin reach $100,000 this year?
After smashing through the $50k and $60k barriers this year, most Bitcoin price predictions are now touting $100k as the next barrier. Several prominent experts, including Citibank analyst Tom Fitzpatrick, had put this forward as a very real possibility. However, analysts have been wrong in the past and it has been suggested that such an exponential rise could herald disaster for the markets in the longer term.