Bitcoin’s price is down over 10% from its all-time high and its critics are taking victory laps this week as bitcoin has plummeted all the way back to… $97,000.

It is still practically almost $100,000 for a single bitcoin. It is crazy to me to think that the “dip” is back to just under that important milestone, and really shows how far this asset has come over the last 15, going on 16 years.

Year-to-date, bitcoin is up over 128%. And by historical trends, it is entering into its third year of rising in price before having a large correction. So this tells me that bitcoin isn’t done pumping yet, it’s just taking a breather before its next leg up.

#Bitcoin should continue pumping through next year, based on historical trends 👀

How high will BTC rise in 2025? 🚀 pic.twitter.com/VFX6jNgvvP

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) December 13, 2024

HODLing bitcoin can be scary at times for new Bitcoiners. This asset is volatile both ways – which is great when it’s pumping but it makes people rethink their lives when it’s dumping. If you are new and bought the local top of $108,000 and are panicking, take it from me, someone who has been in Bitcoin for almost eight years now – you’re going to be fine.

This is a healthy pull back and the only thing you should be worried about is stacking more bitcoin today than you had yesterday.

It is more important to learn the fundamentals of Bitcoin and understand this new asset class than to worry about what the price of bitcoin does on a day to day basis. Bitcoin is a wild beast and will have downturns just as hard as it swings up. This volatility, even the downturns, are a good thing for many reasons – it creates opportunities. Especially for new bitcoiners to take advantage of stacking bitcoin at cheaper prices than when they originally got in.

Whenever you’re in doubt, it’s always important to zoom out and see the trajectory that bitcoin is on. Bitcoin has two possible scenarios it will experience:

1.) Bitcoin will fail and go to $0.

2.) Bitcoin will succeed and reach a price range in the millions and beyond.

I think Bitcoin has proven itself that it will not fail, so option number 1 here is not on the table. Meaning option number 2 is what is more likely to happen.

And if option number 2 is going to happen, then well, you should stack more bitcoin on every downturn.

When in doubt, zoom out.

HODL ✊ pic.twitter.com/mr61ppIn3Y

— Nikolaus Hoffman (@NikolausHoff) December 20, 2024

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

Ah, Bitcoin—a digital enigma that dances between brilliance and bafflement, much like a British summer deciding whether to rain or shine. As we teeter on the brink of the $100,000 milestone, it’s impossible not to cast our minds back to the late John McAfee: antivirus mogul, libertarian firebrand, and a man whose eccentricity made the Mad Hatter look like an accountant.

In the distant, carefree days of 2017—when masks were for surgeons and Zoom was just an onomatopoeia—McAfee made a proclamation that would make even Nostradamus raise an eyebrow. He boldly wagered that Bitcoin would soar to $500,000 within three years. And if not? Well, let’s just say he offered to partake in a culinary act so unspeakable, it would make a cannibal blush. National television executives must have been on standby, salivating at the potential ratings bonanza.

By 2019, instead of backpedaling like any sensible person who’d had one too many at the pub, McAfee doubled down. He upped his prediction to a cool $1 million per Bitcoin, asserting that the $100,000 mark would merely be the opening act—the financial equivalent of a warm-up comedian before the headliner brings the house down.

Let’s not forget McAfee’s infamous bullish proclamation: that once Bitcoin hits the $100,000 mark, it would be like unlocking the floodgates of a financial Hoover Dam. At that pivotal price point, he believed, Bitcoin wouldn’t just stroll to $1 million—it would sprint. At the time, there were no Bitcoin ETFs gracing the portfolios of traditional investors, no nations like El Salvador adopting Bitcoin as legal tender, no corporate titans like MicroStrategy hoarding it like digital dragons atop golden hordes, and certainly no whispers of U.S. Bitcoin strategic reserves. John didn’t have a crystal ball—though I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d claimed to—but he keenly understood the game theory behind Bitcoin’s design. He grasped that the underlying security, the allure, and the network effect of its mathematical genius were not just revolutionary; they were inevitable. For McAfee, it was never a matter of “if” but “when” the world would catch on.

Critics scoffed, economists guffawed, and the rest of us watched with the same morbid fascination we reserve for reality TV and train wrecks. Was McAfee a visionary or just a man who’d spent a bit too much time sampling his own supply of eccentricity?

Now, as Bitcoin flirts coquettishly with the $100,000 threshold, perhaps it’s time to reconsider. Maybe old John wasn’t entirely off his rocker—perhaps just teetering on the edge with a cocktail in hand. His timing was about as precise as a broken sundial, but the essence of his prediction might yet hold water.

You see, McAfee understood something fundamental about Bitcoin: its potential to disrupt, to redefine, to turn the financial world on its head like a particularly aggressive yoga instructor. He saw the floodgates that could open, unleashing a torrent of innovation and, yes, wealth.

Of course, trusting McAfee’s predictions was always a bit like trusting a fox to guard the henhouse—or perhaps more aptly, trusting a software tycoon with a penchant for tropical escapades to give sound financial advice. But even a broken clock is right twice a day, and perhaps a maverick is right once in a blue moon.

As we stand on this precipice, wallet in one hand and skepticism in the other, let’s tip our hats to John McAfee. Not because he was necessarily correct, but because he had the audacity to dream big, to stake his reputation (and other unmentionables) on a future that seemed ludicrous to many.

In a world that often feels like it’s been scripted by a committee of pessimists, McAfee was a wild card—a joker in the deck who reminded us that fortune favors the bold, or at least makes for an entertaining story.

So here’s to you, John. Your timing was off, your methods were unorthodox, and your promises were—thankfully—unfulfilled in certain respects. But as Bitcoin edges toward that $100,000 milestone, perhaps your spirit of defiant optimism wasn’t so misplaced after all.

In the end, maybe it’s not about the destination or even the journey, but the colorful characters we meet along the way who make the whole saga worth following. And if nothing else, McAfee ensured that the tale of Bitcoin was never short of intrigue, humor, and a dash of the absurd.

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

What an enormous day it has been today.

Gary Gensler officially announced that he is stepping down from his position as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and minutes later, Reuters reported that Donald Trump’s “crypto council” is expected to “establish Trump’s promised bitcoin reserve.” A bitcoin reserve, that would see the United States purchase 200,000 bitcoin per year, for five years until it has bought 1,000,000 bitcoin. 

Right after both of those, Bitcoin continued its upward momentum and broke $99,000, with $100,000 feeling like it can happen at any second now.

It is hard to contain my bullishness thinking about the United States purchasing 200,000 BTC per year. They essentially have to compete with everyone else in the world who is also accumulating bitcoin and attempting to front run them. There are only 21 million bitcoin and that is a LOT of demand.

To put this into context, so far this year the US spot bitcoin ETFs have accumulated a combined total of over 1 million BTC. At the time of launch the price was ~$44,000 and now bitcoin is practically at $100,000. And that’s all ETFs combined. Imagine what will happen when just one entity wants to buy a total of 1 million coins, having to compete with everyone else accumulating large amounts as well?

I mean MicroStrategy literally just completed another $3 BILLION raise to buy more bitcoin, and will continue raising until it purchases $42 billion more in bitcoin. The United States are most likely going to be purchasing their coins (if this legislation is officially signed into law) at very high prices. The demand is insane and only rising in the foreseeable future.

With two months left to go until Trump officially takes office, it remains to be seen if this bill becomes law, but at the moment things are looking really good. As Senator Cynthia Lummis stated, “This is our Louisiana Purchase moment!” and would be an absolutely historic moment for Bitcoin, Bitcoiners, and the future financial dominance of the United States of America.

This is the solution.

This is the answer.

This is our Louisiana Purchase moment!#Bitcoin2024 pic.twitter.com/RNEiLaB16U

— Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) July 27, 2024

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.