John McAfee Says Crypto Will Bounce Back—and He’s Not Alone

Depending on who you ask, bitcoin is both the way forward for finance or a large waste of time. But regardless of the worth of the cryptocurrency crashing in latest months, bullish trade gamers are satisfied the market will quickly exceed the document ranges of 2017.

One of the loudest voices is John McAfee, the cybersecurity pioneer-turned-cryptocurrency guru who final yr guess {that a} bitcoin can be valued at $1 million by 2020. If the prediction turned out to be mistaken—he knowledgeable his 840,000 Twitter followers—he would eat his own penis.

McAfee confirmed to Newsweek that the wager remains to be on. “I absolutely stand by the million-dollar prediction,” he stated on Wednesday, within the wake of the worth of the cryptocurrency tanking to underneath $6,000. “It is still two and a half years away, in which two things will happen: bitcoin will continue to grow, and the U.S. dollar and other fiat currencies will devalue.”

He was not the one one to foretell that the fintech market would quickly be thriving, even when different trade gamers had extra tempered expectations. “The overall trend in the value of bitcoin is still heading north,” Danial Daychopan, CEO of a bitcoin platform known as Plutus, instructed Newsweek.

“Bitcoin is a good unit of account, and unlike gold it’s the perfect unit of exchange,” Daychopan continued. “This is a fundamental fact. We’re going to see overall growth of the bitcoin price by the end of the year: I predict the value of bitcoin may reach £30,000, the year after £50,000.”

Last yr, funding into cryptocurrency spiked as the worth of bitcoin skyrocketed. Financial specialists warned that it was a bubble—however even that has not postpone the devoted bitcoin bulls.

“Cryptocurrencies have gone through many ‘bubbles’ already in their short life cycle,” Liina Laas-Billson, who has labored within the fintech subject for half a decade, instructed Newsweek.

“The previous bitcoin boom resulted in the price crashing 80 percent from an all-time high of over $1000 per bitcoin. It took three years to climb back up to the previous price rate,” she stated.

“By the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin skyrocketed to nearly $20,000. If we assume the same thing to happen in the future, its price could reach somewhere near $80,000 in 2021.

“This is sufficient to make buyers very excited,” she continued. “Every time the crypto market crashes it brings quite a lot of doom and gloom. I’ve already misplaced rely of what number of occasions bitcoin has been declared useless. The negativity round cryptocurrency may be in comparison with the negativity in the direction of the web within the 90s. Both have sailed on regardless of the dangerous press.”

Of course, those who are invested in the industry want to see it thrive. Crypto is big business.

External commentators are less than convinced about its future success. “How low [the price of bitcoin] can go is anybody’s guess,” academic Niels Pedersen told Newsweek. “If cryptocurrencies ever grow to be mainstream, then costs might go loads greater; if not, many grow to be nugatory.”

But the bulls don’t think in the short term. Most “purchase the dip” and hold onto currency until it spikes in value. On Reddit’s r/Bitcoin messageboard, many believe it still remains viable.

As one passionate user posted this week as the market plunged: “Am I promoting now? No approach. Why not? Because bitcoin will not be damaged. Will there be bumps alongside the best way? What do you assume we’re experiencing now? At this time, a few of you get to determine: are you going to be a coward, or not?”