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.

When Bitcoin was first launched by Satoshi Nakamoto, there was no price. It was literally worth $0.

The price of bitcoin first broke over $100 in April of 2013 and was captured on film as it rose to an all time high of $111. Later that year in December, BTC rose dramatically higher hitting a new all time high over $1,000.

Reacting to #Bitcoin reaching an ATH of $111 back in 2013 🤯 pic.twitter.com/qkBfdNJyjA

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) February 11, 2024

Four years later, Bitcoin rose to $10,000 and beyond in November during the infamous bull market of 2017.

Our front page is looking pretty sweet right about now! 🚀 #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/ug77yZoPW1

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) November 29, 2017

Now, today we are at a historic time in history. December 4, 2024, will forever go down in history as the day the price of bitcoin rose above $100,000 for the first time.

BREAKING: #BITCOIN HITS $100,000 FOR FIRST TIME EVER!https://t.co/XwdsvLUycN

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) December 5, 2024

The next logical target for Bitcoin is another 10x away — $1,000,000.

It is now no longer a question of if Bitcoin will achieve this, but when. When it comes to Bitcoin as a store of value, it has won. It’s off to the races from here, any price action is now possible. And one can only assume that going from $100,000 to $1,000,000 is going to be a lot easier than going from $0 to $100,000.

During this rise to $100,000, Bitcoin has cemented itself as a legitimate asset, and everyone who has taken any meaningful amount of time to research and understand it is buying more.

Everyday people around the world have adopted it for savings, payments, and financial privacy, nation states have adopted it as legal tender and are passing very pro-Bitcoin legislation, and now Wall Street firms are joining in. For someone who has been around for 7 years in the Bitcoin world, it feels unreal.

Congratulations to all the bitcoin holders, old and new, on achieving this milestone. For those who have been HODLing through the bear markets, educating themselves on why Bitcoin is so important, accumulating BTC and ignoring the FUD, and onboarding new Bitcoiners — I salute you. You deserve this and all the gains that have been made on this journey.

This was not easy, you did not get lucky. It takes conviction and strength to be able to buy and hold this extremely volatile asset long term. Enjoy this moment with your friends and family, and here’s to a new era of Bitcoin — the grind towards $1,000,000.

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.