Guggenheim sees Bitcoin market cap at over 12 trillion dollars

Another day, another bitcoin value prediction. Yet nothing seems unrealistic these days. A few months ago, analysts were debating whether Bitcoin would cross the $ 20,000 mark. It hit $ 46,000 on Monday, and the incoming predictions seem almost casual. Investment firm Guggenheim Partners has just released its new forecast for Bitcoin's long-term price potential at $ 600,000. And that's an increase in the forecast of $ 200,000 in less than two months. The company revised its last prediction in December when it said its fundamental analysis shows that bitcoin should be worth $ 400,000. "If you looked at the supply of bitcoin relative ... to the supply of gold in the world, and what the total value of gold was if bitcoin went on those kinds of numbers, you'd be talking about $ 400,000 to $ 600,000 per bitcoin," Scott Minerd, chief investment officer told CNN. At a price of $ 600,000, the total value of bitcoin would be around $ 12 trillion, which would be the value of the global gold market. Last month JPMorgan also released a note stating that bitcoin could soar to $ 146,000 as it competes with gold as an "alternative" currency. However, bitcoin will have to meet certain conditions if it is to compete with gold in terms of market value. The cryptocurrency needs to become much less volatile and although this volatility has improved significantly lately, bitcoin remains far more volatile than gold. "... when you consider that we went from $ 20,000 to $ 40,000 in Bitcoin in one month, it smells like short-term speculation," said Minerd. The fact is, however, that Bitcoin, with gains of nearly 300 percent last year, outperformed gold and the Dow Jones stock market by ten times. Bitcoin's recent surge to record levels has been driven in part by the entry of larger, institutional investors into the market. But one tweet drove the price of the cryptocurrency up by up to 20% in a matter of hours - and only one person can cause that much turmoil. In late January, Elon Musk added the word "Bitcoin" to his Twitter profile. Just hours later, it caused a 15% rally in the value of the currency. The reason for this soon became known. On Monday, Tesla, the world's most valuable automaker, revealed its new strategy in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, saying it has invested $ 1.5 billion in Bitcoin and that its investments in digital currency and other "alternative reserve assets" could grow. Tesla's SEC filing also fulfilled the long call for Bitcoin payment for Tesla cars, as the company revealed it would accept Bitcoin as a form of payment. "Additionally, we expect to begin accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment for our products in the near future, subject to applicable laws and initially on a limited basis that we may or may not cancel upon receipt." Tesla is now the largest Bitcoin buyer after business analytics firm MicroStrategy, which has also bought more than $ 1.5 billion in Bitcoin. In late October, payment company Square said it bought 4,709 bitcoins worth about $ 50 million, roughly 1% of Square's total assets. PayPal secured the first conditional cryptocurrency license from the New York State Department of Financial Services, the first licensed company for a conditional bit license in New York State.