In brief: In news that will please crypto fans and hodlers but worry gamers, Bitcoin is on the rise again. Following a horrendous 2022, BTC's price slowly increased over the course of last year, and it has now passed the $45,000 barrier, its highest since April 2022. The rally has spurred investors and insiders to make predictions about how high the digital coin's price will reach – one believes $500,000 isn't out of the question.

2022 was a year to forget for Bitcoin. From reaching an all-time high of around $69,000 a year earlier, it dropped below $17,000 in December 2022, the result of TerraUSD and FTX collapsing. This so-called crypto winter saw $1 trillion wiped off the value of the cryptocurrency market.

Bitcoin's price slowly but surely increased last year. It was up 156% in 2023 and has now reached a 21-month peak of over $45,000. That's still far from its all-time high, but there's plenty of optimism that the price will keep climbing this year.

Bitcoin has had an interesting few years

Two factors are expected to push Bitcoin even higher in 2024. The first is the halving, an event that happens every four years in which the amount of bitcoin awarded to miners is cut in half. The idea is that it will help make Bitcoin more scarce and resistant to inflation. The halving will continue until all 21 million Bitcoins have been mined, likely to be sometime in the year 2140. Based on previous halvings, BTC's price is expected to go up following the event.

The other factor is the increasing likelihood of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approving a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF). In addition to allowing investors to buy a product that tracks the price of bitcoin without having to hold the currency directly, it could help attract large institutional investors while also legitimizing the coin - JPMorgan Chase's CEO last month said that crypto is only useful for criminals and should be "shut down."

CNBC asked a selection of people about their predictions for Bitcoin's price this year. It's interesting that the lowest figure, from Mark Mobius, was still $60,000. Others said $75,000 or $80,000, several believe it will be $100,000, and Venture capital fund CoinFund believes the price will reach $500,000.

It's worth remembering that most of these predictions come from those within the crypto industry who want people to invest. There were predictions last year that Bitcoin would hit $250,000, which obviously never happened.