Could Investing $1,000 in Bitcoin Make You a Millionaire?

There are currently over 85,400 Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) millionaires in the world, according to the latest Crypto Wealth Report from Henley & Partners. That's far more than for any other cryptocurrency and tells you all that you need to know about Bitcoin's performance over the past decade. In seven of the past 10 years, Bitcoin has been the top-performing asset in the world, and it hasn't even been close.

That stellar performance transformed Bitcoin from a tiny $100 crypto in 2013 to the $60,000 behemoth it is today. If you bought Bitcoin early and then held on during its many market downturns, there's a high likelihood you're a millionaire. But what about now? Could investing a similar amount of money in Bitcoin today also make you a millionaire?

Millionaire math

Let's start with some millionaire math. For the sake of argument, let's assume you have $1,000 to invest today and plan to invest all of it into Bitcoin. To turn that $1,000 into $1 million, you'd need to see a 1,000 times return on your investment.

Image source: Getty Images.

How realistic is that? Some of the most bullish price predictions call for Bitcoin to reach a price of $1 million by 2030. Given Bitcoin's current price of $60,000, that would imply a 16 times return on your investment. That's an impressive figure but nowhere close to the 1,000 times return you would need. And it's nowhere close to the 600 times return Bitcoin enjoyed over the past decade.

To attain a 1,000 times return, Bitcoin would need to reach a price of $60 million. Given Bitcoin's maximum lifetime supply of 21 million coins, that implies a market cap of over $1 quadrillion! That number is easily higher than the total value of the global stock market ($100 trillion). And it's even higher than the value of the entire wealth in the world, which is estimated to be close to $600 trillion by 2027. Thus, a price target of $60 million is not very realistic if you take into account the relative size of today's financial markets.

The millionaire-maker scenario for Bitcoin

But not all is lost if you're determined to become a Bitcoin millionaire. Many smart people actually think Bitcoin could get close to that $60 million price target.

In July, for example, Michael Saylor of MicroStrategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR) predicted that Bitcoin would reach $13 million by 2045. That was his base-case scenario. His bull-case scenario called for Bitcoin to reach $49 million. And if you spend just a few minutes on YouTube, it's quite easy to find investors predicting a future price of $100 million or higher for Bitcoin.

What all of these admittedly outlandish price predictions have in common is a core belief that Bitcoin will one day replace the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency. Over a long enough period, the thinking goes, the modern financial system will eventually abandon the dollar and embrace Bitcoin.

According to this scenario, the growing mountain of debt in the United States ($35 trillion) will one day collapse. At some point, it will no longer be possible to print more money to cover this debt. Thus, there will be a dollar crash, and dollar-denominated assets will fall in value. As a result, the world will need to find a new reserve currency, and this is where Bitcoin enters the picture. Just as the world once ran on a gold standard, the world will one day run on a Bitcoin standard.

Is Bitcoin still the best millionaire maker?

Be careful what you wish for. If you're hoping to become a Bitcoin millionaire with a modest $1,000 investment, then just about the only way it could happen is if the entire financial system crashes and Bitcoin takes over.

That being said, I'm still long-term bullish on Bitcoin and believe it will continue to increase in value over the next decade. But I also recognize that it's far more likely for someone to become a millionaire by investing in a cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin.

The key is to find a cryptocurrency that looks a lot like Bitcoin did in 2010, when someone was willing to pay 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas. If you're able to buy this cryptocurrency when it's still trading at a very low price, and then hold on for years as it rapidly appreciates in value, then you might just find yourself sitting on a very nice nest egg one day.

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Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.