Billionaire U.S. venture capital investor Tim Draper's bold prediction that Bitcoin would hit $250,000 by 2022 received backing from CNBC's Brian Kelly this weekend.
Kelly, of "Fast Money," supported Draper's position in an interview Saturday in which he said "it sounds crazy" to consider that BTC [Bitcoin] already had a 4,000 percent return over two years and a 3,000 percent return in four years may be a "continuation of the trend we've seen." Kelly said that mainstream institutionalized money flooding into the cryptocurrency sphere from Rockefeller's VC arm, Soros Fund Management and even a Goldman Sachs executive have decreased the volatility in investing, Cointelegraph first reported.
Kelly compared Bitcoin to some of the first big players on the Internet, including Cisco and Microsoft. "I think this technology is going to work, it's going to be game changing, but it's very early days, so we can have this massive volatility," explained Kelly. Fundstrat's Tom Lee blamed Bitcoin's earlier price fall on a large-scale taxpayer sell off ahead of the April 17 federal tax deadline. Draper initially made the bullish prediction while speaking at a Blockchain event hosted by his own university in San Mateo, California Thursday. He told attendees and investors to "believe" in the lofty predictions, Cointelegraph reported.
Kelly said an increase in transaction volume will help push Bitcoin to $250,000 by 2022, or $25,000 by the end of 2018. "If the number of transactions [...] catch up a bit, then I do think we've bottomed here and I do think we've got a sustainable bull run ahead of us."
Bitcoin surpassed the $8,400 price level Sunday for the first time since March 25, continuing a 5-day rally of 20 percent. For cryptocurrencies as a whole, the total market cap topped off at nearly $336 billion over the weekend. Ethereum, Ripple XRP and Litecoin were among top-ten overall cryptocurrencies that reported rallies.
Despite the potential bull market April run, Bitcoin remains down about 50 percent from its all-time high price of $19,000.
Kelly said citizens living under oppressive or volatile governments are the most common users of cryptocurrencies, because as he said he explained to a friend, "Well, listen, it's better than losing 100 percent if your assets are seized by a rogue government."
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