Bitcoin can pass its $20,000 all-time highs within weeks, says Alex Saunders, while Ether only needs a year to beat its own record.
Bitcoin (BTC) can hit $100,000 in five years and $1 million by 2035, Nugget’s News CEO Alex Saunders has told Cointelegraph.
Speaking in an interview with Cointelegraph Markets analyst Michaël van de Poppe on Nov. 18, Saunders described current conditions as a “perfect backdrop” for new highs.
Saunders: $1M Bitcoin price by 2035
“It’s either going to keep going like right now in the next few weeks and get to $20,000 very quickly, or it’s going to have its bit of a range now and then hopefully positive into next year,” he said.
Saunders was speaking as BTC/USD came off recent highs of $18,400 to move in a wide corridor, which has become focused on $17,700. Gains have been swift, with weekly performance alone delivering up to 15% returns.
Looking ahead, Saunders believed that six or seven figures for Bitcoin lay some way off, but that a combination of money and adoption meant that there was now “no way out.”
“I honestly think that Bitcoin will hit $100,000 in the next five years, and then it’s going to become about, ‘Well do they actually try and shut it down, or how do they regulate it and trade it?’” he told Van de Poppe.
“And if it’s allowed to just continue on its mission and absorb all the money from around the world and become a global reserve currency… I think we can get to $1 million per coin in the next, whatever that is, 15 years.”
The estimates appear somewhat conservative by comparison to some extant price forecasts, among them, the popular stock-to-flow based series, which predicts at least $100,000 by next year.
Saunders’ concerns about legality in the event of major price rises echo those of major investor Ray Dalio, whose comments on Bitcoin earned him significant publicity this week.
Ether’s turn for transformative gains?
In terms of the largest altcoin Ether (ETH), meanwhile, the prognosis is even better. Saunders considers there to be a strong possibility that new all-time highs for ETH/USD are a year away — or less.
Given current performance, that would require nearly 200% of upside from press-time levels of $470.
Ether, like most altcoins, has failed to copy Bitcoin’s recent advances, despite the rollout of the long-awaited Ethereum 2.0 and associated roadmap, which will transform the network.
Van de Poppe nonetheless agrees that the future is likely bright for Ether, with the next bull run halting only at an order of magnitude above the peak of the previous one.
“Next cycle ATH for ETH probably between $10,000–20,000,” he told Twitter followers on Wednesday.
