Report: Bitcoin Could Rival Gold Long-Term As Asset Class

JPMorgan Chase strategists say that the cryptocurrency Bitcoin could reach $146,000 in the long term as it starts to challenge gold as an asset class.

The forecast, put forth by strategists Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, said in a note Monday that Bitcoin's market capitalization, which is currently about $575 billion, would have to jump 4.6 times to reach $146,000 to equal the total private sector investment in gold.

The strategists said Bitcoin is still plagued by volatility while investors still favor gold because of its stability.

"A crowding out of gold as an 'alternative' currency implies big upside for Bitcoin over the long term," the JPMorgan Chase strategists wrote.

"A convergence in volatilities between Bitcoin and gold is unlikely to happen quickly and is in our mind a multiyear process. This implies that the above-$146,000 theoretical Bitcoin price target should be considered as along-term target, and thus an unsustainable price target for this year."

That volatility that worries traditional investors was on display Monday, when Bitcoin lost $30,000 of support, $4,000 over a one-hour period, after reaching record highs, Cointelegraph Markets reported.

Major cryptocurrency exchanges, though, continued to do record business Monday, indicated high interest despite the drop in Bitcoin. Binance, the world's leading crypto exchange, reported on Monday a record $80 billion in trade activity over a 24-hour period.

"To put this in perspective, from Nov. 15, 2017, to Dec. 15, 2017, the month leading up to the [all-time-high] in 2017, Binance did $20 billion in trading volume in one month," Binance said on Twitter.