Here's How Much $100 in Bitcoin Would Be Worth if It Reaches This Billionaire's 2045 Price Target

Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) is currently worth approximately $86,000 per coin. It's the afternoon of Nov. 20, 2025, and the crypto market is going through some wild swings right now. I glanced back at the Bitcoin quote and found that it had changed by $200 in the few seconds it took to write those two sentences. And now, it's back to what I said in the first place. Let's just stick with that price.

So, if you invested $100 in Bitcoin right now, you'd put roughly 0.00116 coins in your crypto wallet. In the real world, you'll get slightly less due to trading fees. For the purposes of this analysis, I'll just call it a $100 Bitcoin buy. That's close enough in this volatile market. Deal?

Okay, so longtime Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor expects Bitcoin to be worth $13 million per coin by 2045. The price target is a bit old, culled from a conference in the summer of 2024, but it also represents the Strategy executive chairman's "base case." That's the most likely outcome in the tech and Bitcoin billionaire's view, with the possible price range stretching from $3 million to $49 million.

How much would your $100 Bitcoin buy be worth in 20 years if one of Michael Saylor's price targets turns out to be correct? Let's have a look.

Michael Saylor's base case for Bitcoin in 2045

Let's start with the base case -- the middle ground that Michael Saylor sees as the most likely 20-year destination. At $13 million per coin, the cryptocurrency will post a 151-fold return. That works out to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.5%. And your $100 investment from 2025 would be worth $15,115 in this scenario.

To be fair, those dollars won't be what they are today. In the fall of 2025, $86,000 has the same buying power as $52,638 did 20 years ago, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' inflation calculator. The average annual inflation rate was 2.5% in that two-decade span, adding up to a 63% total inflation hit.

Applying the same long-term inflation trend to the next couple of decades would make your 2045 Bitcoin wallet worth about $9,370 in 2025 dollars. So, it's a 9,270% return in inflation-adjusted dollars instead of roughly 15,000% -- significantly lower but still a mind-blowing return on a $100 investment.

The bull and bear edges of Saylor's Bitcoin vision

The extreme edges of Michael Saylor's Bitcoin price targets are also worth a look just for kicks.

• If Bitcoin lands at $3 million per coin in 2045, you'd have a 3,388% return and a 19.4% CAGR. In other words, your $100 Bitcoin bet would grow to $3,485 in this scenario.
• On the high end, the lofty price target of $49 million represents a 20-year CAGR of 37.3%. In this scenario, $100 in 2025 balloons into a $57,000 wad of digital cash this time.

Again, the inflation-adjusted results would be about 39% lower, but that's still life-changing stuff even at the low end. Mind you, the inflation-dampened $3 million price would be a fairly reasonable CAGR of 16.5%. That's well ahead of the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) stock market index's long-term averages but not by a country mile.

In other words, you can build wealth with a safe S&P 500 tracker, like the SPDR S&P 500 ETF or the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, and come reasonably close to Saylor's Bitcoin projections.

Sure, I'm talking about the very bottom of Saylor's guidance and the cryptocurrency still comes out ahead, but the SPDR S&P 500 ETF and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF investors don't have to make a multidecade bet on Bitcoin. Instead, they rely on 500 winning American businesses hand-picked by a panel of experts in a diversified portfolio that changes with the times.

Image source: Getty Images.

Reality check: Is a quadrillion-dollar Bitcoin even possible?

Saylor's price projections are inspiring, but these incredible returns are also sobering. More than 800 stocks have a market cap of at least $10 billion today. Among them, only chip designer Nvidia and tech consultant QXO have beaten the implied 37.3% CAGR of Saylor's high-end target over the last two decades.

Bitcoin could get there, but it seems highly unlikely. Let's say that the leading cryptocurrency replaces gold for wealth-building purposes on a global scale. All the gold in the world is worth about $30 trillion today. At $49 million per coin, Bitcoin would be worth approximately $1.0 quadrillion.

Inflation-adjusted or not, that's preposterous. I'd rather look at Michael Saylor's lower price targets than his most bullish hopes. Either way, I plan to hold some Bitcoin and crypto-related stocks for the long run, but these expectations are too optimistic. With the volatility I mentioned earlier, anything is possible. At the same time, there's a difference between wild price swings and consistent gains.

If I can turn $100 of today's Bitcoin into $1,500 in the next 20 years, that's more than good enough. And the stock market just might keep up with that 14.5% annual gain. Choose wisely or spread your investments as you see fit among the available options.

Anders Bylund has positions in Bitcoin, Nvidia, and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Nvidia, and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.