With several expert Bitcoin price predictions for 2016 topping out at $3,500, the coming year will prove the worth of the digital currency once and for all.

The optimistic Bitcoin price predictions represent quite a turnaround from the start of 2015, when the price of Bitcoin was bottoming out from the bursting of the late 2013 bubble and the Mt. Gox meltdown.

The Bitcoin price dropped as low as $173.06 on Jan. 14 – an 85% plunge from its all-time high of $1,156.48 reached on Nov. 30, 2013. It spent most of the rest of the year meandering between $200 and $300.

But from mid-September to mid-December, the Bitcoin price doubled from $230 to $465.

According to the Bitcoin price predictions for 2016 we've seen lately, such gains will be the norm over the next year.

"I am forecasting a bull market in 2016," Simon Dixon, founder and CEO of BnkToTheFuture.com and manager of the Bitcoin Capital venture capital fund, told CoinTelegraph. "If the bull market takes us past $600, I see no reason why we should not see new highs breaking through the $1,200 level, but this time sustained support at the new high for several months at the end of 2016 with significantly higher volume."

Some other 2016 Bitcoin price predictions:

Erik Voorhees, CEO and co-founder of the ShapeShift cryptocurrency exchange, offered a 2016 Bitcoin price prediction of $1,800.

Daniel Masters, co-founder of the Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund (GABI), said the Bitcoin price will test the all-time high in 2016 – and will zoom to $4,400 by the end of 2017.

Vishal Gupta, CEO of SearchTrade.com, has a Bitcoin price prediction of $1,500 to $2,000.

Bobby Lee, CEO of Chinese Bitcoin exchange BTCC, has made a 2016 Bitcoin price prediction of $3,500.

These Bitcoin price predictions are three to eight times the current Bitcoin value of about $445. Are these guys crazy?

Actually, their reasoning is pretty sound. Here's why the Bitcoin price will take off in 2016…