US investment bank JPMorgan believes Bitcoin could hit $146,000 in the long term, Bloomberg has reported.
According to the bank, the asset could jump to that level if the popularity of the crypto increases significantly and it becomes an alternative to gold.
In particular, the bank's analysts have said:
"A crowding out of gold as an ‘alternative’ currency implies big upside for bitcoin over the long term. Bitcoin’s [current] market capitalization of around $575 billion would have to rise by 4.6 times – for a theoretical Bitcoin price of $146,000 – to match the total private sector investment in gold via exchange-traded funds or bars and coins."
However, JPMorgan experts believe the crypto's volatility, which is one of the main reasons that is preventing it from being adopted as a method of payment by the masses, must first be reduced for institutional investors to make large investments into the asset.
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The bank claims the target price of $146,000 is long term. According to it, the convergence of Bitcoin and gold volatilities is a "multi-year process."
The price of Bitcoin surpassed the psychological barrier of $20,000 in late 2020, a milestone not reached since December 2017, when it surpassed this level for the first time in its history. Over the past few weeks, the price of the crypto has been growing steadily, reaching even $34,000, a level from which it has fallen slightly.