Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano — co-founder of crypto asset management firm Morgan Creek Digital Assets — predicts bitcoin (BTC) will hit $100,000 by the end of 2021.

In an interview with BloxLive.tv on July 2, he said the basic principle behind his forecast was classic supply-demand economics — still valid for the innovative digital asset class.

One of the largest drivers of continued price appreciation will be bitcoin’s halving — when mining rewards will be reduced by half — in May 2020, he said.

Meanwhile, most institutional investors aren’t even aware of this looming reduction in supply, he noted, suggesting that what will continue to drive the market from the perspective of sentiment will be a “continuation of trends we’re already seeing.”

These include increasing legitimization of the space, inflows of institutional capital, record trading volumes, and a climate of global instability that promotes recognition of bitcoin as a safe haven asset.

“Time is bitcoin’s greatest advocate,” Pomp added, and as these trends continue, he said his current 70-75% confidence level in $100,000 by 2021 will hit 90%:

“In August of last year I predicted bitcoin would go down to $3,000 before returning to $10,000. It essentially did that [...] Now I think it’s going to $100,000, but [...] there will be more volatility: there will be parabolic runs like we saw in June and then there will be 20-30% drawdowns from that. Along the way a lot of people will call the top at these local highs — they’ll be incorrect.”

Elaborating on the question of legitimization, Pomp agreed with the notion that Facebook’s entry into the space with Libra is a bullish sign. “People may not like Zuckerberg, but no one thinks he’s dumb,” he quipped, proposing that:

“Bitcoin will benefit from libra being a “gateway drug” for cryptocurrencies.”

It’s not so much a question of the token itself, he noted, but the digital wallet that will be rolled out alongside it, which will be a fantastic on-ramp not only for Libra, but potentially in future also other cryptocurrencies, tokenized securities, and even data.

Just yesterday, crypto merchant bank pioneer Mike Novogratz said he won’t be selling the next time bitcoin hits $14,000, anticipating its spectacular rally will see its value going much higher.