Representations of virtual currency Bitcoin are placed on U.S. Dollar banknotes in this illustration taken May 26, 2020.
Dado Ruvic | Reuters
The chief of a new and rapidly growing platform for crypto offerings sees bitcoin hitting $100,000 by the start of next year.
CoinList CEO Graham Jenkin is bullish on the cryptocurrency, which hit a new record high of $66,000 on Oct. 20 following the launch of a hotly-anticipated U.S. bitcoin futures ETF. The digital currency has since pared some of its gains, trading at $59,052 per coin at 6:45 a.m. in London Thursday.
But Jenkin was optimistic about bitcoin climbing to even greater heights.
“Most of the folks at CoinList will bet that we’re at $100,000 by the end of the year. It’s getting pretty tight so I’m not sure that we’re going to make it there, but that’s what we’re predicting toward the start of the year.”
Illustrating the growing demand for crypto holdings, CoinList just announced $100 million in series A funding, which has given it a valuation of $1.5 billion.
A number of financial experts and companies see the currency reaching and even surpassing that $100,000 mark. They point to inflation and the ETF launch as creating a perfect environment for bitcoin to thrive, describing it as a hedge for inflation.
Billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones told CNBC earlier this month that he prefers the cryptocurrency as an inflation hedge over gold.
“There’s a plan in place for crypto and clearly it’s winning the race against gold at the moment … I would think that would also be a very good inflation hedge,” Jones told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “It would be my preferred one over gold at the moment.”
Fidelity Investments, meanwhile, sees the currency reaching $100,000 but over a much longer timeline.
Jurrien Timmer, Fidelity’s director of global macro, told CNBC this month that the prediction is based on a supply and demand model he studies. “The next and last time those two models intersect is at $100,000 in a couple years,” he…
