McAfee: Bitcoin’s Scarcity Will Trigger Its Price to Hit $1M in 2020

Major Bitcoin (BTC) bull, programmer and 2020 United States presidential campaigner John McAfee remains adamant that the world's largest cryptocurrency will hit $1 million in 2020.

“I said $1 million and I’m sticking to one”

McAfee, known for his brave prediction that BTC will reach $500,000 next year, defended his recently doubled down forecast of $1 million per coin in 2020 during a Forbes interview on Sept. 30.

In the interview, McAfee argued that the main trigger for Bitcoin’s surging price will be its scarcity. BTC’s supply is limited to 21 million coins, and a significant proportion of that has apparently been lost forever. McAfee said:

“Let’s get real, there are only 21 million bitcoins, seven million of which have been lost forever, and then, if Satoshi is dead, add a few more million.”

85% of BTC’s total supply already mined

As Cointelegraph reported, the amount of mined BTC reached 17,850,000 on Aug. 1.

This means 85% of its total supply is now in circulation — leaving just 3.15 million coins to mine over the next 120 years.

Since then, BTC has added more than 100,000 coins to its supply — and according to Blockchain.com data, it has a circulation of 17,968,000 as of now.

BTC suffered a major sell-off last week when the major cryptocurrency lost $1,500 in less than a day for the first time in months. Later Bitcoin touched a new multi-month low — below $7,800. 

At publishing time, BTC is trading at about $8,268 — down 1.1% over the past 24 hours, according to Coin360.

After seeing some notable volatility this year, Bitcoin is still up more than 27% compared with this time last year, when it was trading at $6,500.

Bitcoin one-year price chart. Source: Coin360

Bitcoin is a store of value, lacks privacy

In the interview, McAfee also emphasized his stance towards the primary function of BTC, urging that it represents simply a store of value.

He said digital assets such as stablecoins and so-called privacy coins are better suited to transaction purposes.

Yesterday, major German bank BayernLB released a report predicting that Bitcoin will hit $90,000 in 2020 due to the upcoming halving.