Bitcoin has won its fair share of Wall Street supporters this year amid a bull run that’s seen it soar around 500%.
The bitcoin price hit highs of just over $60,000 per bitcoin last month before falling back slightly but has since made up lost ground. Meanwhile, the broader cryptocurrency market has surged to almost $2 trillion—boosted by decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens.
Now, analysts at Wall Street banking giant and former bitcoin skeptic JPMorgan have said bitcoin could climb as high as $130,000 in the long-term if it continues to see its volatility converge with that of gold’s.
The bitcoin price has soared over the last six months, climbing to around $60,000 per bitcoin.
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“Considering how big the financial investment into gold is, any such crowding out of gold as an ‘alternative’ currency implies big upside for bitcoin over the long term,” JPMorgan analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote in a note to clients this week.
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The bank found that a six-month measure of bitcoin volatility appeared to be stabilizing around the 73% mark—suggesting “tentative signs of bitcoin volatility normalization” that could help to “reinvigorate” interest from institutional investors.
High volatility “acts as a headwind towards further institutional adoption,” according to JPMorgan.
The bitcoin price has soared as institutional investors including London-based asset manager Ruffer and insurance giant MassMutual have bought into bitcoin—with Elon Musk’s Tesla topping off a series of high-profile bitcoin bets.
The bitcoin price has climbed from around $10,000 per bitcoin to around $60,000 as a result, but JPMorgan thinks it could still have some way to run.
“Mechanically, the bitcoin price would have to rise [to] $130,000, to match the total private sector investment in gold,” JPMorgan analysts wrote.
The bitcoin price broke $60,000 per bitcoin in March before settling just under the psychological … [+]
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The bitcoin community is, meanwhile, feeling flush after bitcoin’s sensational 2021 run.
“After a stellar performance in the first quarter that saw the king of crypto record an all-time high of $61,700, bitcoin enters April leading a seemingly buoyant cryptocurrency market,” Paolo Ardoino, the chief technology officer at British Virgin Islands-based bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, said in emailed comments, pointing to PayPal’s announcement this week it will soon let users spend bitcoin and a handful of other cryptocurrencies at its 29 million merchants worldwide.
“As PayPal’s recent announcement demonstrates, the inherent volatility of digital tokens is no barrier to their increasing use in payments. This rally could possibly herald bitcoin’s first meaningful encroachments into the legacy financial system and credit card industry.”
