Bitcoin’s rise from fractions of a cent to more than $8,000 today came as a surprise to most. The price of the leading cryptocurrency has long since surpassed many of the outrageous price predictions of yesterday. Many believe that it will continue doing so going forward too.

For one of the earliest contributors to the Bitcoin project, the late Hal Finney, Bitcoin is striving to become the “dominant payment system in use throughout the world.” The computer scientist reasoned to Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009 that if Bitcoin is successful in this regard, the network will absorb between $100 trillion and $300 trillion – a rough estimate of the total global wealth. This will result in a Bitcoin price of $10 million. Finney added that the few cents it would cost to mine some Bitcoin today might make it a phenomenally good bet.

More recently, cryptocurrency market analysts have revisited Finney’s early speculations. In response to a post referencing the $10 million Bitcoin on the anniversary of Finny declaring that he was first “running Bitcoin,” Blockstream founder Adam Back (@adam3us) reasons that inflationary pressure in fiat currencies make the sky-high figure much less ridiculous than it first sounds. Back states that if USD inflation continues to rise, it’s feasible that the dollar loses all but 1/10th of its purchasing power over the next decade. Such a devaluation makes a $10 million Bitcoin much more attainable in real terms.

Back adds that a $100,000 Bitcoin now seems closer than ever, particularly given that the asset has bounced around either side of $10,000 for so long. The Blockstream CEO reasons that few expected a $1,000 Bitcoin or even a $10,000 one was frankly insane during the first few years of its rise. Today, BTC at $100,000 feels like $1,000 and a $1 million one is the stuff of fantasy.

Bitcoin

Analyst Plan B (@100trillionUSD) and Twitter user Steven Smith (@stalcottsmith) agree with Back’s reasoning. The former’s faith in Bitcoin’s future is based on two decades worth of investment experience and seeing the impact of quantitative easing first hand. Plan B states that continuing inflation will not only encourage people to buy Bitcoin but will also make these seemingly massive prices much more reachable thanks to the dollar’s limited purchasing power. Meanwhile, Smith states that the move from $20,000 to $100,000 “will blow people’s minds.”