Bitwise’s Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan said he left the recent Bitcoin conference in Nashville with a significant takeaway after hearing that several influential US politicians are embracing Bitcoin and expressed that they were not optimistic enough. Hougan explained in a post dated July 31 that a few recent promises made by US politicians have led him to rethink what is possible with Bitcoin.
Notable Statements from a Prominent Figure
These promises included Republican candidate Donald Trump’s plan to create a strategic national Bitcoin reserve, Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis’s announcement of a Bitcoin reserve bill to address the country’s $35 trillion debt crisis, and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s promise to ensure the US Treasury buys 500 Bitcoin a day until it reaches at least 4 million Bitcoin. Hougan shared the following on the subject:
“These ideas would have been fantasy a year ago. But after what I witnessed last week, it seems more likely to happen. Less than two years ago, FTX went bankrupt in a historic fraud, Bitcoin was trading at $17,000, and now politicians are openly talking about building a Bitcoin Fort Knox.”
Hougan furthered his argument by highlighting his recent partnership with Coinbase, 12 months after the US Department of Justice sued the firm for operating as an unregistered securities exchange. Hougan noted that many politicians might not genuinely like Bitcoin and are merely bowing to its growing popularity, but where they stand on this spectrum might not matter:
“Politicians are embracing crypto because Americans are embracing crypto.”
What to Expect?
While Hougan did not provide a price prediction, Michael Saylor, the brain behind MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin investment strategy, predicted at the 2024 Bitcoin conference that Bitcoin would reach $13 million before 2045. The bullish scenario price prediction was close to the recent estimate by crypto asset manager VanEck, which forecasted Bitcoin reaching $52 million by 2050 at $49 million.
Bitcoin has fallen more than 8% since it nearly surpassed $70,000 on July 29, and it is still 13.4% away from its all-time high of $73,737 set on March 14, according to CoinGecko data.
