Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has increased nearly 240% in the past three years, even as rising interest rates and the collapse of several major tokens and exchanges have cooled the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin has survived that sell-off, wiping out many smaller altcoins and meme coins, and it has emerged as the safest "blue chip" cryptocurrency to invest in.

In 2024, the first spot price ETFs for Bitcoin were approved, and the most recent "halving" has reduced mining rewards. President Trump's victory in November also caused many investors to return to Bitcoin, as his administration adopted more cryptocurrency-friendly policies compared to the Biden administration.

President Trump also ordered the establishment of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Fund and the US Digital Asset Reserve in March, while decreasing interest rates have created additional momentum for the cryptocurrency market in general.

As Bitcoin fluctuates above $100,000 and trades just a few dollars below its all-time high, investors may wonder if it's time to take profits. However, some large institutions and investors expect its price to rise even further in the next three years.

Standard Chartered claims that the price of this stock could soar to $500,000 by 2028 when considering volatility decreases and the company's ETFs attract more investors, while Arthur Hayes of Maelstrom expects the stock price to spike to $1 million as the US dollar depreciates, driving investors towards more alternative assets.

We should not be overly confident in those optimistic estimates, but personally, I think buying Bitcoin before 2028 is a wise decision for four simple reasons.

1. The Next Bitcoin Halving

Bitcoin has undergone four halvings in 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024. Each time, the reward was cut in half, making Bitcoin mining for profit increasingly difficult. Back in 2012, traditional desktop GPUs could still be used to mine Bitcoin. But today, miners need to use powerful Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) instead of GPUs.

Before the first halving, Bitcoin had a block reward of 50 tokens for each block created. But after four halvings, that "block reward" has decreased to just 3.125 Bitcoin.

The increasing mining difficulty of Bitcoin will tighten supply and slow down the production process as it approaches the maximum supply of 21 million Bitcoins. Approximately 19.7 million of those coins have been mined, and the last coin is expected to be mined by 2140.

Bitcoin was trading at $63,800 just before the most recent halving on April 19, 2024. The price has risen nearly 70% since then, so it would be wise to buy Bitcoin before the next halving, which is expected to occur in March or April 2028 and will cut the block reward down to just 1.5625 Bitcoin.

2. Decreasing Interest Rates

The price of Bitcoin fell in 2022 and 2023 as rising interest rates led investors to stay away from cryptocurrency and other speculative activities. But in 2024, its price stabilized and began to rise again as the Federal Reserve cut the benchmark interest rate three times. The Fed did not cut interest rates further in 2025, but is still expected to implement at least two rate cuts this year.

When interest rates decrease, the price of Bitcoin will rise as more investors return to the cryptocurrency market. Decreasing interest rates will also weaken the US dollar -- and that trend may lead many investors to hoard Bitcoin, gold, and other "safe haven" assets.

3. Its Increasing Adoption as a National Currency

So far, only two countries, El Salvador and the Central African Republic, have adopted Bitcoin as their national currency. However, other countries facing severe inflation, currency devaluation issues, sanctions, and debt problems may follow suit. If that happens, Bitcoin could gain more momentum as a global alternative to fiat currencies.

4. Increased Institutional Ownership

Most institutional investors exposed to Bitcoin only allocate a low single-digit percentage of their portfolios to cryptocurrency. But that could change in the coming years as traditional investment firms like Fidelity, Schwab, and BlackRock provide more support for Bitcoin across retail brokerage firms and retirement accounts.

Assuming those institutional investors start allocating more than 5% of their portfolios to Bitcoin, its price could surge and cause another "fear of missing out" (FOMO) buying frenzy. If that happens, the leading Bitcoin ETFs in the market will attract more institutional investors who do not want to face the risks of holding cryptocurrencies directly in digital wallets. Other countries -- including the UK, Australia, and major Asian markets -- may also approve their own spot price ETFs for Bitcoin.

Should You Buy Bitcoin Right Now?

Bitcoin will continue to be volatile in the near future, and I'm not sure it can reach $500,000 or $1 million by 2028. But it will attract more attention before the next halving, and there is still plenty of room for institutional investors to accumulate more Bitcoin. So if you can withstand its sharp fluctuations, this is still a great time to buy more Bitcoin.