1 Top Cryptocurrency to Buy Before It Soars 24,600%, According to Michael Saylor of Strategy

In a span of just two months, Bitcoin (BTC 5.28%) has slumped in value from an all-time high of $126,000 to a current price of $85,000. For good reason, crypto market sentiment is at a nadir right now, with the Crypto Fear & Greed Index registering “extreme fear.”

But Bitcoin bulls remain undeterred. According to Michael Saylor, founder and executive chairman of Strategy (MSTR +0.88%), the current slump is only temporary. Long term, says Saylor, Bitcoin is headed to a price of $21 million within the next 21 years. That represents a potential gain of 24,600% for those investors willing to buy and hold Bitcoin for the long haul.

Is a price of $21 million for Bitcoin realistic?

On the surface, of course, a price tag of $21 million for Bitcoin sounds like impossible, pie-in-the-sky thinking. But keep in mind that, until Bitcoin’s recent market meltdown, the conventional wisdom was that it would easily reach a price of $1 million by 2030.

If you do the math, the prediction of a $21 million price tag for Bitcoin might not be quite so unrealistic as it sounds. According to Saylor, all it requires is for Bitcoin to grow at a steady Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 30% for the next 20 years.

By way of comparison, in the period from 2017 to 2025, Bitcoin grew at a CAGR of 50%. And a price target of $1 million for the year 2030 also assumes a CAGR of 50%. So, if history is any guide, a CAGR of 30% is well within reach for Bitcoin.

Of course, previous performance is no guarantee of future performance — but it does provide a certain measure of comfort if you’re buying and holding Bitcoin for the long term. In eight of the past 10 years, Bitcoin has been the top-performing asset in the world. And in most years, it hasn’t even been close. In the period from 2012 to 2025, Bitcoin regularly turned in impressive triple-digit annual returns to investors.

Impact of institutional adoption

One major assumption from Strategy’s Michael Saylor is that the pace of institutional adoption will continue to grow for Bitcoin. That means more financial products from big Wall Street banks, more institutional investors allocating a portion of their portfolios to Bitcoin, and more pro-crypto legislation coming from Congress. All of that activity, the thinking goes, should help to make Bitcoin a mainstream financial asset.

And, indeed, the amount of money pouring into the new spot Bitcoin ETFs has been truly eye-opening. Within the first 12 months, more than $100 billion flowed into these ETFs. They were a big hit with institutional investors, many of whom were previously restricted from investing in the crypto market directly. From this perspective, the new spot Bitcoin ETFs made investing in Bitcoin as easy, convenient, and safe as investing in tech stocks.

But there’s one downside to all of this money flowing in from institutional investors as a result of the surging price of Bitcoin — it has led to riskier and riskier behavior in the crypto market. It’s now possible to make highly leveraged bets on the future price of Bitcoin. As a result, a single “flash crash” has the potential to wipe out billions of dollars overnight.

Also, don’t forget about the new crop of Bitcoin Treasury Companies, all of them attempting to emulate the business model pioneered by Strategy in 2020 (back when it was still known as MicroStrategy). They are using debt to load up on Bitcoin on their balance sheets, fully expecting its price to continue to rise.

But what happens if it doesn’t? Saylor says his company can endure a market drawdown of 80 to 90%. But can smaller Bitcoin Treasury Companies also weather the storm, or will they be forced to sell their Bitcoin? If so, that wave of new selling could send the price of Bitcoin into free fall.

What to watch next for Bitcoin

December 2025 could be an important inflection point for Bitcoin. Is this the recent pullback to $85,000 just a temporary setback, or a sign of something far more alarming happening within the crypto market?

To help answer that question, I’m keeping a careful eye on the Bitcoin Treasury Companies, and especially Strategy. If they are able to buy and HODL through the market turbulence, then I’ll feel much more confident about Bitcoin having the ability to grow at a 30% clip for years to come.

Twenty-one years from now, if Michael Saylor is right, the price of Bitcoin could be as high as $21 million. Just don’t expect the price of Bitcoin to be straight up from here. If history is any guide, there will be plenty of volatility along the way.