Bitcoin could return to $68,000 within 4 years and hit $500,000 in the next decade, MicroStrategy's Michael Saylor says

• MicroStrategy's Michael Saylor said bitcoin could return $68,000 in four years and then hit $500,000 within the next decade.
• At the MarketWatch Best New Ideas in Money Festival on Wednesday, the bitcoin bull shared his thoughts on the world's largest cryptocurrency.

MicroStrategy co-founder and CEO Michael Saylor expects bitcoin to return to its November high of nearly $69,000 within the next four years, and said the token could hit $500,000 sometime in the next decade.

While speaking at the MarketWatch Best New Ideas in Money Festival Wednesday, he also noted that he is monitoring bitcoin's four-year moving average — it's at about $20,000 currently — for signs of a bottom.

"It has touched that a few times," he said. "I think this is stable."

Early Thursday, bitcoin was trading at about $19,198.60.

In the same interview, the famed bitcoin bull likened the world's biggest cryptocurrency by market cap to the classic inflation hedge of gold.

"The next logical stop for bitcoin bitcoin is to replace gold as a non-sovereign store of value asset," he said.

MicroStrategy, Saylor added, is still building out the Lightning Network, a payment protocol using the bitcoin blockchain.

While bitcoin has shed roughly 60% so far in 2022, Saylor's MicroStrategy has continued to buy the dip on the token. Between August 2 and September 19, the company bought $6 million worth of bitcoin, SEC filings show, bringing its stockpile to more than 130,000 total tokens, worth about $3.98 billion.

Saylor personally holds about 17,732 bitcoins, which he bought at an average price of about $9,500, according to MarketWatch.

Shares of MicroStrategy, like bitcoin, are down roughly 64% year to date.