Can Bitcoin reach 1 million US dollars?

Yes! Bitcoin can reach $1 million USD, but various financial analysts have different opinions about how likely that is to happen. The general consensus seems to be that it will have to be a major player in the world economy to reach the kind of market capitalization required to break $1 million.

Wences Casares, CEO of bitcoin wallet Xapo and member of PayPal’s board of directors has made a compelling forecast on bitcoin’s value, as discussed in cryptocoins news:

“The internet doesn’t have a currency and it desperately needs one. The biggest mistake would be to buy more bitcoin than you can afford to lose. The biggest mistake is not to own any bitcoin. Put 1% of your net worth in Bitcoin and forget about it for 10 years” Casares speech also included a prediction for the cryptocurrency, where one bitcoin would hit $1 million before the next ten years.

Former hedge fund manager James Altucher thinks bitcoin will reach $1 million in three years, and recently told CNBC:

"I'll say $1 million by 2020, as well, easily. There's 15 million millionaires around the world. All their financial advisors are going to say, 'Hey, buy a bitcoin. You need some exposure.' There's only going to be 21 million bitcoins minted ever in history. That's also going to drive demand."

Gil Luria, Managing Director at the Los Angeles, Ca.-based investment bank Wedbush Securities recently told Investopedia:

“If Bitcoin lives up to its potential and becomes the working capital of international trade, instead of countries and companies sitting on yen, U.S. dollars, Swiss francs, they could just use Bitcoin for cross-border transactions. It would be far more efficient. If that were to happen, Bitcoin would be taking $10 trillion of foreign currency that sits in multinational companies. If that were the case, each Bitcoin could be worth $1 million. The probability of that happening would be very low but it is possible.”

Mathew Frankel, investment analyst & writer, discussed this in the Motley Fool:

“While bitcoin would have to work a little to become a major player in the global currency market, the total bitcoin market value at $1 million each isn't an outlandish amount of money. Widespread mainstream acceptance is what would need to happen before bitcoin could reach the $1 million level, or anything close to it…However, there are some obstacles preventing the mass market from fully embracing the online currency.”

As you can see from these 4 quotes, the possibility for Bitcoin reaching $1 million is real, but there are obstacles to it gaining the kind of widespread use & acceptance that it will take to get there.

It’s worth keeping in mind that not only are there numerous potential legal & regulatory hurdles for Bitcoin to pass, but it also needs to fend of competition from many other up-and-coming crytocurrencies, such as Ethereum & potentially even Ripple (XRP).

Since $1 million is 58x the value of today’s Bitcoin (valued at $17k), and given the challenges involved with it reaching that benchmark, it’s likely that many speculators will opt to invest in alt-coins as they offer more short-term profit potential.

That being said, none of the alt-coins has the name recognition that Bitcoin currently does, which means that it will continue to attract mainstream speculators for some time to come..