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Bitcoin’s Fair Market Price is $14,800, Says Cryptocurrency Bull Tom Lee

Tom Lee

Cryptocurrency bull Tom Lee says bitcoin’s dismal price of roughly $3,400 is wrong because its actual fair market value is $13,800 to $14,800.

The Fundstrat founder said he made the assessment by considering the number of active wallet addresses, usage per account, and supply metrics.

“Fair value is significantly higher than the current price of Bitcoin,” he wrote in a note, as reported by Bloomberg. “In fact, working backwards, to solve for the current price of Bitcoin, this implies crypto wallets should fall to 17 million from 50 million currently.”

Lee said bitcoin’s price going forward will depend on mainstream acceptance of the cryptocurrency as an asset class and growing consumer adoption.

He also insisted that bitcoin’s fair market value would easily rocket to $150,000 if BTC wallets approach just 7 percent of Visa’s 4.5 billion account holders.

Tom Lee: Stop Focusing Only on Price

While Lee has made countless headlines for his bitcoin price targets, he refused to give one this time, saying he’s getting annoyed with everyone’s pathological obsession with mundane daily price fluctuations.

“We are tired of people asking us about target prices,” he quipped.

Despite the bear market, Lee remains ever-bullish about the future of the cryptocurrency industry as we head into 2019, as evidenced by his gleeful holiday tweet with the Rockettes.

Four weeks ago, Lee doubled-down on his year-end bitcoin price target of $15,000, saying the current market downturn is an “awkward transition” that will pass.

Lee said the next big trend — which is just around the corner in early-2019 — is institutional investors making giant leaps into crypto.

Bitcoin Futures to Launch in Early-2019

To facilitate institutional investments, Bakkt, which will facilitate bitcoin futures trading, is scheduled to launch on January 24.

Bakkt will provide custody and price discovery for bitcoin — which is regulated as a commodity by the CFTC — in a way that will prevent market manipulation and fraud.

Similarly, Nasdaq — the world’s second-largest stock exchange — also plans to launch a bitcoin futures product in the first quarter of 2019, as CCN reported. So the race is on.

Roger Ver: Crypto’s Future is ‘Brighter Than Ever’

Tom Lee’s bullish outlook was echoed by Roger Ver, an early bitcoin enthusiast and bitcoin cash evangelist. Last week, Ver said that the long-term future of cryptocurrency “is brighter than ever.”

Ver — a polarizing figure who has been hailed as “Bitcoin Jesus” by some and lambasted as “Bitcoin Judas” by others — dismissed skeptics’ claims that the frequent hacks in the crypto ecosystem prove that crypto is a magnet for con artists.

Ver clapped back by saying the hacks and repeated attempted hacks are actually “bullish signals that cryptocurrency is here to stay for the long-term.”

He says the high-profile hacks merely underscore that virtual currencies are valuable.

“The fact that hackers are trying to hack it shows it’s worth something,” Ver reasoned. “If it wasn’t worth anything, hackers wouldn’t be wasting their time trying to hack it.”

Mike Novogratz, the founder of Galaxy Digital Holdings, is also unfazed by the state of the crypto market today. “Revolutions don’t happen overnight,” he said.

Novogratz predicts that 2019 will be a watershed year because big things are happening behind the scenes to prepare for a major explosion.

The former Goldman Sachs partner says institutional “FOMO” (fear of missing out) will drive the market up as cryptocurrency assets gain more mainstream acceptance and traditional finance players hop on the crypto bandwagon.

In Your Face, Naysayers

Here’s a flashback to some quotes about inventions that were initially dismissed that later went on to change the world.

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” —Ken Olsen, computer pioneer.
“Apple is already dead.” —Nathan Myhrvold, former Microsoft CTO, 1997.
“Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.” —Ferdinand Foch, French general.
“[Online] shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop.” —Time magazine, 2000.

Featured Image from Bloomberg/YouTube