BTC/USD: will the Bitcoin hit $250.000 in 4 years (thanks to increased adoption)?

The Bitcoin (BTC) could be worth millions of dollars after 2022 because payment processors will make transactions easier, Timothy Draper predicts.

Speaking at a question and answer session at the Malta AI & Blockchain Summit last week, the pro-crypto venture capital specialist said innovations such as the Lightning Network would be essential to raise the price of the Bitcoin.

The $250,000 Bitcoin in 4 years?

Confirming his previous forecasts, Draper added that he still believes that the BTC/USD can reach $250,000 by 2022 or 2023.

"I think Bitcoin payment processors will really open the floodgates," he says.

On the question of how the Bitcoin would reach new records in the next few years, Draper goes on to say:

"It is thanks to the Lightning Network and OpenNode and perhaps other developments that will allow us to spend Bitcoins very freely and quickly, so that it will no longer be just a store of value but can also be used for micropayments; it can be used for retail sales, it can be used anywhere".

Bullish sentiment is on the rise

Although it is not a payment processor in the strict sense of the term, Lightning facilitates near-instant BTC transactions between nodes via channels that cost almost nothing to use. The fees for Lightning transactions can therefore be much cheaper than blockchain transactions - just one satoshi (about $0.00008788).

As Cointelegraph reported, Draper has long been one of the most fervent Bitcoin advocates, joining people like John McAfee in making very high, even fanciful price forecasts.

In September, he even went so far as to describe the $250,000 figure as "conservative", while later claiming that Bitcoin would cause considerable geopolitical upheaval.

Other voices have since joined him in his conviction on prices, with Bobby Lee, co-founder of BTC Exchange, last week saying the BTC/USD would be worth about $500,000 by 2027.