A Thursday morning panel at Bitcoin Miami with Ark Invest (NYSE:ARKK) CEO Cathie Wood and Bitcoin whale/CEO of Microstrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) Michael Saylor discussed the projected future for Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), which represents the blockchain industry as a whole. “As many of you may know, in our big ideas 2022 [from Ark Invest] we have a price target in 2030 of more than one million dollars per Bitcoin,” Wood says of projections for how much money will pour into the blockchain industry in the coming years.
While that price target may seem outlandish, Wood argues that it would take just 2.5% of institutional assets to be allocated to Bitcoin in the coming years to make that price target come true. Price targets such as these operate under the knowledge that blockchain will usher in a new future for the global internet and across virtually all industries. With the success of digital assets such as NFTs taking off in recent months, as well as a general interest in the tech becoming more widely accepted, claiming that cryptocurrency assets are dramatically undervalued today is not an outrageous claim.
Saylor added that the future of Bitcoin should be looked at as a given, and that investors would be wise to think about Bitcoin and blockchain as the inevitable future of the internet rather than a speculative investment. “Not supporting Lightning is like not supporting the internet,” Saylor says of the Lightning Network’s blockchain-integrated payment protocol. “If you don’t support Bitcoin you don’t support sound economics or integrity. But if you don’t support lightning it’s just kind of like cutting yourself from the internet—so much so that you start to think ‘I don’t want to do business with a company that doesn’t want to get into Lightning’ and you have to find another vendor,” Saylor says as millions of cryptocurrency enthusiasts agreed.
The annual Bitcoin Conference in Miami kicked off this week with full support from the city’s mayor, Francis Suarez. Suarez welcomed the conference on Wednesday when he unveiled a new, 3,000 pound techno version of New York’s charging bull statue adorned with the Bitcoin symbol. The statue is meant to symbolize Miami’s future as a technology and financial hub for the budding DeFi and Web3 spaces—and Bitcoin Miami’s success is the first step in that.
As thousands of cryptocurrency and blockchain industry leaders, thinkers and creators pour into the annual Bitcoin Miami conference, it becomes clear that the question is no longer whether Bitcoin will see long-term success, but how soon that success will come. Today, as billions of dollars pour into the blockchain industry from both institutional and retail investors, the adoption of blockchain technology becomes closer and closer.
With major companies and organizations integrating more with blockchain networks and cryptocurrency payments, the future of the industry is likely to come faster than expected. Today, as Saylor discussed mass adoption of cryptocurrency payment systems, it became clear that many major investors are looking at cryptocurrency adoption with the expectation that companies will have to integrate with the networks in years to come.
Bitcoin Miami’s success over the last several years has helped to catapult the city into a global hub for cryptocurrency and blockchain companies alongside support and encouragement from Mayor Suarez. FTX, a cryptocurrency trading platform, purchased the naming rights to Miami’s former American Airlines Arena long before Crypto.com purchased the naming rights to Los Angeles’ Staples Center. Today, as dozens of blockchain companies expand their office spaces in Miami’s urban areas, the city’s new designation as Silicon Shores shows its clear goal of becoming a global hub for crypto and Web3.
Bitcoin Miami 2022 continues in the coming days, with panels and discussions on how blockchain, cryptocurrency and Web3 can continue to develop in the coming year. Mayor Suarez, who spoke at the annual conference, says that Bitcoin’s future as a legal tender currency around the globe shows a need for mass adoption as soon as possible. With cities like Dubai welcoming cryptocurrency transactions with open arms only to find great success, Miami’s future as a blockchain hub could make it a global financial center in the coming decades.
