Tom Lee, co-founder of FundStrat Global Advisors, projects bitcoin to be worth a whopping $25,000 by 2022. While most would consider this a bold claim, Lee actually claims that his estimate is conservative.

Appearing on Business Insider's »the bit«, Lee substantiated his projections, which have remained very positive despite bitcoin's recent downturn following China's cryptocurrency crackdown. He describes the cryptocurrency's potential to be used as a personal encrypted database and as a powerful value-generating mechanism.

Lee further states that his research indicates that bitcoin will reach $25,000 if it captures 5% of the gold market as an alternative way of storing value. The 5% figure is actually somewhat conservative, as it doesn't take inflation into account and assumes cryptocurrency occupying a smaller share of investors' portfolios than it currently does.

Snapchat investor Jeremy Liew and Blockchain CEO Peter Smith are even more optimistic about the future of bitcoin, expecting a value as high as $500,000 by 2030.