This will be a fun thread to look back on by the end of 2018. I want to just log my thoughts here, so that I can come back a year & 2 weeks from now & see this post.
It's definitely possible that BTC could go to $500,000 by the end of 2018. Look at what people were saying at $1k..."I'll eat _______ if BTC goes to $10k by the end of 2017". Now we are at the end & it's nearly double that.
The thing is that only a small portion of the world's money is in BTC right now. As price continues to climb, more people go from "wtf is a bitcoin" or "It's a bubble", to "How do I buy some of that".
If price ends the year at something like $25,000, then that is only 20x for BTC to reach $500,000. I use the word only loosely, because currently in the cryptosphere you can say only 20x & people say "yeah, that's nothing".
Price can only climb so high without actual support. All of this is speculation, demand will eventually not be there and whats left for bitcoin? Huge fees? Outdated technology (eventually)