Bitcoin’s Future: A Digital Gold or the Foundation for a Whole New Economy?
Could Bitcoin Be the Currency of the Future? Michael Saylor’s $13 Million Prediction
Bitcoin at $13 Million: A Bold Vision or an Overzealous Dream?
Is Bitcoin the Key to Tokenizing $500 Trillion Worth of Global Assets?
Bitcoin’s Road to $13 Million: A New Financial System or a Pipe Dream?
Bitcoin: The Foundation of a New Financial System?
Last year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved numerous Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), giving both individual and institutional investors a regulated, secure way to own the cryptocurrency. This helped solidify the belief that Bitcoin can serve as a true store of value—essentially a digital version of gold.
However, Michael Saylor sees Bitcoin as something much bigger. He envisions a future where over $500 trillion worth of real assets are “tokenized,” meaning their ownership rights (and other related assets) are moved onto the blockchain, replacing the traditional methods of record-keeping. The $500 trillion figure represents the total value of every asset in the world—from every property to every corporate share.
Since Bitcoin is decentralized and immune to manipulation by any person or corporation, Saylor believes it is the perfect reserve asset for the tokenization process. In his vision, Bitcoin would become the currency used for buying, selling, or transferring tokenized assets. This would mean that to participate in this new financial system, everyone would need to own some Bitcoin.
Saylor predicts that all of this could unfold by 2045, with Bitcoin’s price rising from its current value of around $99,000 (as of this writing) to a staggering $13 million. The first step toward this goal is creating a digital assets framework (a set of rules and laws), which Saylor believes could be accomplished under the Trump administration. With Trump being pro-crypto and his party now controlling all three branches of government, there’s a strong possibility to start this massive project.
Is $13 Million Per Bitcoin Possible?
If Bitcoin were to reach a price of $13 million, its market capitalization would be about $257 trillion, assuming its current supply of 19.8 million coins. For context, the total market capitalization of all 500 companies in the S&P 500 index is currently $49.1 trillion. So, Bitcoin would be worth five times more than all the companies in the S&P 500 combined.
That sounds highly unrealistic, and it’s based on the assumption that every government, company, and person in the world will agree to operate under a Bitcoin-based financial system. If you follow global politics, you likely know how challenging it is to get universal consensus on even the simplest matters. A complete overhaul of the global financial system seems far-fetched, at least within the next 20 years.
Additionally, fiat currencies with floating exchange rates have advantages because they allow economies to adjust at different speeds. For example, after the Brexit vote in 2016, the British pound dropped by about 20% against most major currencies, which helped make British exports cheaper and absorb some of the economic shock.
While Saylor’s vision doesn’t involve abandoning fiat currencies, implementing a Bitcoin standard could severely disadvantage weaker economies. Countries with less robust economies would need to spend more to acquire Bitcoin than wealthier nations like the U.S., and it’s unclear how this issue would be resolved.
Bitcoin Might Still Be a Good Investment
Earlier, I mentioned that many investors view Bitcoin as a solid store of value, especially now that ETFs are available. If we look to gold as an example, which has been a store of value for thousands of years, we might get an idea of where Bitcoin could go next.
The total value of all gold reserves is approximately $18.1 trillion. To match that, Bitcoin’s market cap would need to grow by 823%, which would bring its price to $914,000. While this is far more realistic than Saylor’s $13 million target, it still represents significant growth.
It’s also worth remembering that Saylor’s company, MicroStrategy, owns 450,000 Bitcoins, which means he has a personal stake in presenting bullish forecasts.