Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales predicts Bitcoin price may drop below $10,000 by 2050, despite strong design and continued existence.
Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales shared a new opinion about Bitcoin on X. He said that Bitcoin will probably survive for decades. However, he believes that the Bitcoin price could decrease enormously by 2050. Therefore, his opinion caused a debate within the crypto community and financial markets.
Jimmy Wales Says Bitcoin May Survive but Lose Value
According to Jimmy Wales, Bitcoin is well-designed technically. Therefore, the network will probably play on in the future. All he said about the future of Bitcoin was that it can only fail in the face of major failure in cryptography. In addition, a massive network attack could also be a threat to the system.
People who think that Bitcoin is going to zero are likely mistaken. The design is robust enough that it will continue to exist in perpetuity, barring some currently unforeseen breakdown in cryptography or a surprise 51% attack (even then, a fork would carry on I would imagine).…
— Jimmy Wales (@jimmy_wales) February 25, 2026
However, Wales said that even events like this may not end the life of Bitcoin. Instead, the network could split and continue through a new blockchain fork. Therefore, he expects the technology to be active for many years.
_Related Reading: _****Bitcoin at $68K: Short-Term Holders Down
But Wales is unconvinced that Bitcoin will be able to succeed as money. He argued that it has failed as a currency and store of value. Therefore, he believes that Bitcoin is not going to become the main global payment system. Instead, it may continue to be a smaller community of enthusiasts.
Furthermore, Wales predicted the price of Bitcoin could be less than $10,000 by 2050. He measured this estimate in terms of today’s dollars. In addition, he warned that the price could even fall much lower. Consequently, he called Bitcoin primarily a speculative digital asset.
Currently, Bitcoin still has a strong market value. As of February 2026, the cryptocurrency is trading for about $68,716. Therefore, the forecast for Wales is a big difference from the market today. His comment soon spread in social media discussions and crypto forums.
Institutional Forecasts Predict Much Higher Bitcoin Prices
However, several financial institutions have a very different long-term perspective. For instance, investment firm VanEck released some positive Bitcoin projections. Their reports indicate that massive price growth could occur if there is more global adoption.
According to VanEck projections, the value of Bitcoin can reach $2.9 million by 2050. Furthermore, the firm estimated a possible high of 53.4 million dollars per coin. These projections are highly dependent on the integration of financial markets around the world, and institutional demand.
Meanwhile, Wales was also concerned about technological adoption trends. He said artificial intelligence systems have not widely adopted cryptocurrencies. Therefore, he asked if Bitcoin will have a major role in the future digital economies.
However, the broader crypto industry is still significantly growing in the world. Governments, banks and technological companies are still exploring blockchain systems. As a result of this, many investors believe that Bitcoin could still have increased importance towards the world.
The debate makes the uncertainty about the long-term future of Bitcoin. Some experts anticipate huge growth while others predict limited usefulness. Nevertheless, the largest cryptocurrency, as well as the one with the highest market value, is still Bitcoin.
Therefore, forecasts such as the one made by Wales often affect investor sentiment. However, market prices continue moving according to adoption, regulation and global economic trends.
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