Bitcoin faces new 'milestone' in 2022 as new forecast predicts BTC price 'in the millions'

Published at: March 17, 2022

Bitcoin (BTC) "may be primed" for a quantum leap in its development thanks to inflation this year, a Bloomberg analyst has claimed.

In a tweet on March 17, Mike McGlone, senior commodity strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, released a fresh bullish take on Bitcoin's future under current macro conditions.

Gold beating Bitcoin "unlikely" this year

Well known for his belief in Bitcoin coming out on top from the latest global financial turmoil, McGlone argued that inflation would ultimately help Bitcoin's "maturation" as an asset class. It would even beat gold in terms of returns.

"Facing the Federal Reserve, inflation and war, 2022 may be primed for risk-asset reversion and mark another milestone in Bitcoin's maturation," he wrote.

"It's unlikely for Bitcoin to stop outperforming gold, stock market amid bumps in the road as the Fed attempts another rate-hike cycle."

An accompanying chart showed Bitcoin's performance relative to a basket of macro assets.

The forecast followed the first in what the Fed hinted would be a series of key interest rate hikes, an event which delivered a modest but welcome boost to BTC price action.

Ex-BitMEX CEO sees $1 million BTC

McGlone, however, was far from alone in his prediction. In his latest Medium post, Arthur Hayes, ex-CEO of derivatives exchange BitMEX, delivered a stark warning about what was to come for global financial markets.

The Ukraine-Russia war, while adding to inflationary pressure, was symbolic for another reason in that it had shown that even a central bank's foreign currency assets could be effectively stolen.

"You cannot remove the world’s largest energy producer — and the collateral these commodity resources represent — from the financial system without serious unimagined and unintended consequences," he reasoned.

Covering a range of macro topics, the post foresaw a restructuring of the financial system, during which Bitcoin, like stocks and commodities, would see heavy losses.

"If you aren’t willing to babysit your Bitcoin, then close your eyes, press that buy button, and concentrate on the safety of your family from a physical and monetary perspective. Awakening a few years after the fog of war dissipates will present a situation where hard money instruments rule all of global trade," Hayes wrote.

Ultimately, however, both Bitcoin and gold should take a significantly more important role as stores of value in the face of declining participation in the U.S. dollar and euro standard from other governments.

Under such circumstances, which he acknowledged were to play out "over the next decade," gold could be five figures an ounce, while a single Bitcoin could fetch a seven-digit dollar sum.

"For a single Bitcoin, my unit is in the millions. For an ounce of gold, my unit is in the thousands," he continued.

"That is the magnitude of fiat denominated price that will occur in the coming years as global trade is settled via neutral hard monetary instruments and not the debt-backed fiat currencies of the West."