In this photo illustration, visual representations of the digital cryptocurrency Bitcoin are arranged on January 4, 2021 in Katwijk, the Netherlands.
Yuriko Nakao | Getty Images
Bitcoin rose on Wednesday to hit a new all-time high as the cryptocurrency continued to trade wildly.
The price of Bitcoin rose to over $ 35,000 on Tuesday evening and hit an intraday high of $ 35,821, according to Coin Metrics. Profits were reduced slightly on Wednesday morning and traded 2% higher at around $ 34,625.
Bitcoin’s recent all-time high is just days after plummeting more than 10% to $ 29,316. This followed a jump of more than 300% in 2020 to levels above $ 29,000.
On Monday, JPMorgan released a note with a bold long-term price target for Bitcoin claiming the cryptocurrency could hit as much as $ 146,000 as it competes with gold as an “alternative” currency. The precious metal also saw significant gains in 2020, with spot gold increasing around 25% over the year.
Anthony Scaramucci, founder and co-managing partner of SkyBridge Capital, told CNBC’s Capital Connection on Wednesday that his company was “fairly optimistic” about Bitcoin’s store of value and saw it “replacing” gold.
Scaramucci, a former White House communications director, added that Congress’s democratic control over cryptocurrencies was “great” due to the expectation of “tremendous” money pressures under a party-controlled federal government.
However, JPMorgan strategists said that Bitcoin would need to become significantly less volatile before it can compete with gold in terms of market value. It is known that the price of the cryptocurrency goes through wild swings.
The call from the U.S. investment giant was noteworthy in light of CEO Jamie Dimon’s earlier comments on Bitcoin. Dimon once called the cryptocurrency a “scam”.
PwC’s global cryto leader Henri Arslanian told CNBC’s Street Signs Asia on Monday that the recent spike in Bitcoin record levels was partly due to the entry of larger institutional investors into the market.
Bitcoin bulls have touted the virtual currency as a gold-like inflation hedge in the face of unprecedented government incentives to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Skeptics see it as a speculative asset with no intrinsic value and a market bubble that is likely to burst at some point.
– CNBC’s Ryan Browne, Saheli Roy Choudhury and Yen Nee Lee contributed to this report.
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