Bitcoin it has rallied nearly 70% so far this year, and industry insiders who spoke to CNBC remain optimistic, with one saying the world's largest cryptocurrency could reach new heights.
Bitcoin previously reached its all-time high of $68,990.90 in November 2021. Since then, it has fallen around 60%.
Marshall Beard, director of strategy at US-based cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, said $100,000 could be a possibility for bitcoin.
โI think Bitcoin will probably break all-time highs this year,โ Beard said, adding that the $100,000 price figure is an โinteresting number.โ
Beard said that if Bitcoin reaches its previous high of near $69,000, "it doesn't take much more for it to go up" to $100,000.
Bitcoin would need to rise around 270% to reach $100,000.
Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer of stablecoin issuer Tether, said bitcoin could "retest" its all-time high near $69,000.
Predictions of new all-time highs mark a more optimistic outlook than in January, when industry executives told CNBC they expected 2023 to be a year of caution.
Is Bitcoin Finally Becoming 'Digital Gold'?
Some of the industry's positive view of bitcoin right now actually stems from how the asset has performed during the banking turmoil brought on by the Silicon Valley bank collapse and the failure of two crypto-friendly lenders Silvergate Capital and Signature Bank.
Instead of collapsing, bitcoin rallied.
Bitcoin advocates say this is evidence that Bitcoin offers an alternative to the traditional banking system as a place for people to keep their money safe.
"I think the rally is explained by saying that people got scared of the banking system because of the crashes," Oliver Lynch, chief executive of Bittrex Global, told CNBC in an interview at Paris Blockchain Week on Thursday.
Cryptocurrency industry insiders predict that Bitcoin could hit a new all-time high in 2023 and possibly hit $100,000. It comes after a prominent investor bet that the digital currency could hit $1 million in 90 days.
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For many years, proponents of bitcoin have argued that bitcoin is a form of "digital gold," a safe asset that can provide investors with inflation protection and investment in times of turmoil. But in recent years, bitcoin has traded in correlation with stocks, notably the tech-heavy Nasdaq.
Now there are signs of disassociation with bitcoin massively outperforming the Nasdaq, many other risk assets and gold this year.
But bitcoin also got a boost from hopes that the banking crisis might reduce the ability of the US Federal Reserve to be as aggressive with interest rate hikes, which would support risky assets like cryptocurrencies.
The $1 million bitcoin bet
Discussion about where the price of the digital currency could go this year has been rife since Balaji Srinivasan, an investor and former head of technology at Coinbase, bet on March 17 that bitcoin would be worth $1 million or more in 90 days. He bet $2 million.
The bet was in response to a Twitter user who said he would bet $1 million that the US would not go into hyperinflation.
Srinivasan argued that โthe world rebrands Bitcoin as digital goldโ as hyperinflation kicks in, the value of the US dollar erodes, and nations, individuals, and businesses begin buying large amounts of bitcoin. Hyperinflation is the massive increase in prices in an economy.
I think for Bitcoin to reach a million dollars in 90 days, there are crazy things happening in the world that we don't want.
marshall beard
Chief Strategy Officer, Gemini
A price of $1 million in bitcoin would represent an increase of approximately 3600% of the current price of the digital currency.
Most people have thrown cold water on this prediction.
Gemini's Beard said that "there's probably a world where Bitcoin hits a million dollars," but not in 90 days as Srinivasan bet.
โI think for Bitcoin to be a million dollars in 90 days, there are crazy things happening in the world, which we don't want,โ Beard said, adding that it could take 10 years to get close to that figure.
Tether's Ardoino echoed the sentiment that if Bitcoin were to hit $1 million in 90 days, it would likely signify an unusual economic event.
"I'm a bit skeptical about it because honestly I wouldn't even expect that," Ardoino told CNBC in an interview on Paris Blockchain Week, which aired on Thursday.
"Because if Bitcoin were to reach such a high price level, [it] it would mean the entire economy would collapse. I'm not sure [that] It's the world we want to live in."
