Investment banking company JPMorgan Chase & Co foresees a potential surge in Bitcoin’s long term value that can reach as high as US$146,000.
JPMorgan analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said that Bitcoin is on its way to compete with gold as an alternative currency. The cryptocurrency is expected to climb 4.6 times to match the current market cap of gold at 2.7 trillion.
With Bitcoin currently competing with the value of gold as an ‘alternative’ currency for investors, the drive for cryptocurrency demand increases now that younger investors prefer it over traditional assets.
Although despite its market value of $575 billion, the groundbreaking cryptocurrency needs to reach the value of $146,000 to match the price of gold. According to Panigirtzoglou, gold and Bitcoin’s ‘convergence in volatility’ is still unlikely to happen quickly.
Despite their prediction that Bitcoin value can compete with gold in the long run, JPMorgan still warns that it may be unsustainable for the cryptocurrency.
In a note, the JPMorgan strategist Panigirtzoglou wrote, ‘While we cannot exclude the possibility that the current speculative mania will propagate further, pushing the Bitcoin price up towards the consensus region of between $50k-$100k, we believe that such price levels would prove unsustainable.’
The strategist added that the value increase for Bitcoin should be a ‘multi-year process.’ He said that this goal is unsustainable for the year 2021.
Financial analyst Tom Lee from Fundstrat Global Advisors, an independent equity research firm based in New York, also predicts a quadruple increase in value for Bitcoin in 2021.
According to Lee, Bitcoin can follow last year’s 300% gain this 2021. He added that it could actually be stronger than the previous increase. The firm’s digital asset strategist David Grider agreed with Lee’s sentiments that Bitcoin’s assets could hit at least $40,000.
Bitcoin’s steady increase to $40,000
At the start of 2021, the value of Bitcoin surged and surpassed $34,000. The cryptocurrency since then continues to increase, hovering around $36,000 last January 18.
Although Bitcoin’s value is predicted to increase, the cryptocurrency is still highly volatile. During the first week of 2021, its value plunged at 17%. It can plummet again unless it breaks out above the $40,000 inflection point prediction by JPMorgan.
The JPMorgan team said that its pattern of demand in the future plus the $22.9 billion profit from Grayscale Bitcoin Trust transactions could help determine the outlook for the cryptocurrency.
Panigirtzoglou said that Bitcoin faced the same problem in November 2020, but with a $20,000 value on the currency.