$1k this year? Based on what? Halving alone won't get us there. We need more events on the fundamental side, e.g., agreement on the block size, that would help with the adoption and thus attract new money. Without that we can forget it.
$1k this year can get fullfilled in other ways lol.
All it takes is some random surge of buy orders to pump something up basically. But I get what your point for natural growth.. and for natural growth it takes prob many more years.
Talking about the pumps. Look at the last pump in November 2015. That is quite good example. It took us in no time from $300 to $500. We didn't hold that level and immediately went back to $350.
Check the volume of that pump and see how much effort it took. Now, going from $400+ to $1k is a hell lot of way. It would take a much bigger pump than that from the last November. Plus many people on the way, say above $500, would start taking profits. I see it hardly feasible without attracting new money, or bringing back Wally.