Bitwise’s Matt Hougan predicts that Bitcoin’s maturity threshold is $500,000, with a $1 million valuation being “absolutely” attainable as Bitcoin starts to rival gold.
In Hougan’s view, $500K per coin marks the transition from Bitcoin’s early to late phase. This outlook is based on Bitcoin’s potential to reach a status similar to gold in the store-of-value market.
Hougan believes that as Bitcoin’s acceptance grows, it will achieve parity with gold, which has a market valuation of $18 trillion, compared to Bitcoin’s current $2 trillion.
Hougan explains, “Why $500K? Today, gold is an $18 trillion market, and Bitcoin is approximately $2 trillion. This puts the store-of-value market at roughly $20 trillion. A mature Bitcoin would, at a minimum, share this market equally with gold.”
He also notes that there are about 20 million Bitcoins in circulation, with another million expected to be issued over the next century.
Once Bitcoin reaches a valuation of $500,000 per coin, it would represent about half of the store-of-value market, equivalent to gold’s share. Until that point, Hougan considers it still early.
Hougan anticipates even higher valuations beyond this threshold, stating, “But ultimately, I think we will go higher. My $500K target is based on Bitcoin taking market share from gold, but I believe it will actually grow the overall market.”
He suggests that as governments increase debt and currency production, the value of stores like Bitcoin will inflate. Hougan concludes:
“Could we see $1 million Bitcoin? Higher? Absolutely. But $500K feels like a good start.”
His comments reflect a belief in Bitcoin’s transformative potential, with institutional and governmental interest in cryptocurrency continuing to rise, indicating a mature, stable role for Bitcoin in the global economy is on the horizon.
