The Kraken boss hopes to buy a Bugatti for 1 Bitcoin by the end of the year

The San Francisco-based exchange company Kraken’s CEO Jesse Powell recently told Bloomberg that he was still bullish on Bitcoin and hoped to buy a Bugatti for one Bitcoin by the end of 2022.

Powell joined Bloomberg Exclusive, where he was reminded of his forecasts from last year. When Powell was hosted by the same show in 2021 where he said:

“Probably towards the end of the year [2021] it will be one Bitcoin per Lambo, and probably by the end of next year [2022] that will be one Bitcoin per Bugatti.”

At the time, Bitcoin was trading at around $48,000. He did not back down when Powell was reminded of his forecasts on 26 August. While he said he didn’t expect the winter market to hit that hard, he still said he would expect to buy one Bugatti with one Bitcoin by the end of 2022.

Bitcoin trades for nearly $24,000 at press time, and luxury car brand Bugatti’s models range between $1.9 million and $3.3 million.

Powell went on to say that he remains very bullish on Bitcoin:

“I bought back into Bitcoin at 18,000, I’m happy to drive it back up. I’m still bullish on the long term, the fundamentals keep getting better. I would never bet against Bitcoin.”

Kraken

As soon as the winter conditions appeared, most major crypto exchanges laid off some of their employees. Kraken did not participate in the layoff trend, which suggests that the company has no financial problems supporting its 3,200 employees.

However, the exchange has had other problems. On June 15, 2022, the Kraken CEO made headlines for allegedly lashing out at employees, claiming they were ill-suited to the company culture. The New York Times took a deep dive into the topic, reporting that Powell created a toxic environment by “starting a culture war” at Kraken.

A month later, in July 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department opened an investigation into Kraken to determine whether it violated U.S. sanctions by allowing users from sanctioned regions to trade cryptoassets. The US had hinted at sanctions against Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Syria and certain parts of Ukraine. When the Treasury opened its investigation, it was known that Kraken had allowed users from Iran, Syria and Cuba to trade tokens.

Bullish on crypto

While they don’t expect Bitcoin to see the price of the Bugatti, many crypto leaders are also bullish on Bitcoin and believe it will rise after the winter conditions are over.

Bloomberg Senior Commodity Strategist Mike McGlone said he expected Bitcoin to reach $100,000 by 2025. Analyzing the market on July 14, McGlone mentioned that he did not know when Bitcoin would find the floor, but it was inevitable for it to rise once it did the.

A few days later, Galaxy Digital CEO Michael Novogratz also discussed his Bitcoin forecast, saying it would see $500,000 by 2027. He analyzed the adoption rates and numbers from the bear market to conclude that the winter market was just a “bump in the road” in adoption , not a complete turnaround.”