Strategy (MSTR 0.74%) founder and Chief Executive Officer Michael Saylor is one of the most vocal of the Bitcoin (BTC -0.82%) bulls out there, and in recent days, he made yet another series of incredibly optimistic predictions about the coin’s growth during the coming decades. Saylor says he expects the price of Bitcoin to rise at a 30% annual rate during the next 20 years, bringing its price into the ballpark of $13 million per coin.
For reference, its price is currently about $104,000, so Saylor’s projection appears to be, at least on its face, extraordinarily ambitious, bordering on fantastical, or perhaps even what some would describe as delusional.
Could he be right, or is this just another instance of another celebrity portfolio manager making lofty predictions in the course of “talking his book” to attract fresh capital for his most important investment?
The math is actually pretty favorable here
During the past 10 years, the price of Bitcoin rose by 43,820%. That puts its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) at 84%; during the past five years, its CAGR was 62%. Therefore, the back-of-the-napkin math for Saylor’s predicted growth rate looks to be on the conservative side relative to the coin’s historical performance.
Let’s emphasize that point: Saylor’s forecast for Bitcoin is based on a scenario in which it would consistently perform significantly worse than it has historically. But will this growth actually happen?
If it does, it certainly won’t occur such that the coin’s price marches upward each year in an orderly fashion. Multiple crashes of as much as 80% have already happened in Bitcoin’s history, and similar plunges will probably happen again. Notably, the asset has recovered from all of those plunges so far and gone on to reach higher highs afterward. It’s more probable than not that it will repeat those patterns.
Image source: Getty Images.
In the current era, there are also a handful of drivers for Bitcoin’s price that make it an attractive asset to hold even if it isn’t capable of growing by as much as Saylor is banking on. Governments, institutional investors, and major corporations are all evaluating whether to hold it on their balance sheets, or are already acquiring it. Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are giving investors easier access to the asset. And that’s before even getting into the long-term drivers of its price performance, like its halving schedule and the scarcity that’s baked into the coin’s protocol.
So all of those trends will contribute upward pressure on the price of the coin during the next 10 to 20 years, as well as providing boosts in the shorter term as the commanders of large volumes of capital implement their Bitcoin strategies.
Even Saylor is advising you not to bet the farm
All of this is to say that Saylor could well be right about Bitcoin’s long-term trajectory. There isn’t any obvious barrier that would prevent the asset from compounding at the pace his forecast calls for.
Nonetheless, he explicitly warns against quitting your day job in hopes that the coin’s price appreciation will carry the day for your personal finances. Nor is it advisable to sell your house to buy Bitcoin, nor to go into debt for the sake of accumulating it at a faster pace. The implications of a bright future for Bitcoin are no excuse to sacrifice the fundamentals of personal finance or your portfolio’s diversification.
However, if Saylor’s bullishness catches your imagination (as perhaps it should) what might make sense is to bump up the size of the allocation to Bitcoin in your portfolio. For conservative investors who might need their funds within the next five years, an allocation of 1% is reasonable, but for those with longer time frames, 5% or more could be a good idea. Just remember, you will only get the benefit of its price compounding over time if you keep your coins rather than sell them.
