Analysts at JPMorgan have recently published a deep dive into the cryptocurrency space and renewed in their analysis their $146,000 per bitcoin price prediction in the long run, if the cryptocurrency’s volatility drops and institutional investors prefer BTC over gold.

The analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou revealed they see bitcoin as a scarce product that is increasingly competing with gold for investors’ preference as a hedge against inflation. Gold, they argued, failed to respond in recent weeks to heightened concerns over inflation, which is at a 13-year high in the United States and surge all around the world.

The re-emergence of inflation concerns among investors during September/October 2021 appears to have renewed interest in the usage of bitcoin as an inflation hedge.

To Panigirtzoglou there is “little doubt” that bitcoin will keep on competing with gold, especially as millennials become more powerful in the investing universe. Per the analysts, taking into account how “big the financial investment into gold is,” any such “crowding out of gold as an ‘alternative’ currency implies big upside for bitcoin.”

The analysts pointed to a $146,000 long-term price target, but noted that for it to come true bitcoin’s volatility would have to fall sharply, Business Insider reports, so that rules-bound investors feel comfortable holding the cryptocurrency.

BTC’s volatility, the analysts said, is currently around four to five times higher than that of gold, and is currently a block to sustainable price rises. Bitcoin’s reputation among institutional investors reportedly took a hit after it fell from a $64,000 high to less than $30,000 earlier this year.

While bitcoin has since recovered to now trade above the $60,000 mark, to JPMorgan’s analysts its fair price is around $35,000 for now. The bank has, nevertheless, said that if the cryptocurrency’s volatility keeps falling it will be around $73,000 next year.

Given bitcoin’s volatility, the analysts predict that a $146,000 price target is in play, but a plunge below $30,000 is also a real possibility.

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