Bitcoin $1M is ‘very reasonable’ says Kraken’s Jesse Powell

According to Jesse Powell, the CEO of major cryptocurrency exchange and bank Kraken, Bitcoin could hit a value of $1 million in the coming decade.

“We can only speculate, but when you measure it in terms of dollars, you have to think it’s going to infinity,” Powell said in a March 4 interview with Bloomberg.

Pushed to be more specific, he said:

“I think $1 million as a price target within the next 10 years is very reasonable.”

Powell, who became a banker in September when the Wyoming Division of Banking granted the company a bank charter—a first for a pure cryptocurrency company—did not have good things to say about the dollar, which became a pure fiat currency in 1971 when President Richard Nixon abandoned the last piece of the gold standard.

The world’s reserve currency “is only 50 years old and it’s already showing extreme signs of weakness,” Powell said, predicting that “people will start measuring the price of things in terms of Bitcoin.”

Of course, predicting the downfall of national fiat currencies is hardly something new in the cryptocurrency community, particularly as the U.S. and other governments print enormous amounts of money to pay for the costs of the COVID pandemic. Powell didn’t quite go that far, passing off the prediction that Bitcoin will eventually “be the world’s currency,” on “true believers.”

“The true believers will tell you that it’s going all the way to the moon, to Mars and eventually, will be the world’s currency.”

At the same time, he pointed out that Bitcoin can “move up or down 50% on any given day” which prevented it from being used much for anything but speculation. For this reason, he suggested that investing in the digital asset should be done from a long-term perspective:

“If you are buying into Bitcoin out of speculation, you should be committed to holding for five years… You have to have strong convictions to hold.”

Powell’s remarks come shortly after a new report by the investment bank arm of financial powerhouse Citi suggested that Bitcoin’s mainstream adoption is now facing a watershed moment that could lead either to mainstream acceptance or a “speculative implosion.”

Going public

Powell also said that he is considering taking Kraken public next year.

Rumors spread about a week ago, suggesting that the exchange is in talks with firms including Fidelity, Tribe Capital, and General Atlantic for a fundraising round that would value Kraken at $10 billion—possibly even hitting $20 billion, if the round attracts enough interest. Still, the firm’s CEO said that he is not satisfied by this valuation: