A screenshot of an anonymous 4chan post, said to have predicted Bitcoin’s price years in advance and to call $145,000 by October, is being shared as proof of uncanny foresight. On closer inspection, the forecast looks less like prophecy and more like a recycled meme.
The post, dated December 20, 2018, lays out a series of Bitcoin price targets running from October 2019 through October 2026, ending at $145,000. Supporters point to figures that look strikingly close to history — roughly $67,000 around November 2021 and near $16,000 during the November 2022 bear market — with one widely shared account calling the targets “crazy accurate.”
No way to verify who wrote it, or when
The screenshot carries no archive link, no tripcode, and no identity marker. Without a verifiable source, there is no way to confirm that a single author published these numbers before the moves happened, rather than after.
There is also direct evidence of editing. A July 2024 post on Binance Square, using identical wording, listed Bitcoin at $105,400 for September 2024. The newer viral image shows $74,000 for that same date and adds the October 2026 target — a sign the figures were adjusted after the fact.
The math does not add up
The post claims a $5.7 trillion market capitalization at $145,000 per coin. With roughly 20 million Bitcoin in circulation, that price implies about $2.9 trillion — less than half the figure stated.
The author also claims to hold “around 90% of total supply,” which would be close to 18 million Bitcoin. In reality, the 100 richest addresses together control roughly 15% of supply, making the boast effectively impossible.
A lesson, not a forecast
Stripped of verifiable sourcing and riddled with internal contradictions, the post reads as an edited or recycled crypto meme rather than a genuine prediction. It is a useful reminder that screenshots are not evidence, and that round-number price targets shared without provenance deserve scrutiny rather than reverence.
For a systematic firm, the point is not whether $145,000 eventually prints. It is that decisions should rest on data that can be checked — not on a forecast whose own arithmetic fails.