Bitcoin Eyes $50,000 in the Long Term as Its Battle with Gold for Best Safe-Haven Asset Continues

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) continue bringing the crypto space into the limelight, as evidenced by their record-breaking bull runs this month. Over the weekend, the price of Ethereum soared to hit a new record-high topping $1460.

Bitcoin also soared to an all-time high (ATH) of $41,500 earlier this month though it has been consolidating ever since as pullbacks have been inevitable, pushing it to a low of $28,953 on Jan 22, following Bitmex’s BTC double-spend rumor, which turned out to be false. 

The leading cryptocurrency is currently down by 4.56% in the last 24 hours and trading at $31,822 at the time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap.

Crypto exchange Luno and brokerage OSL believe that Bitcoin is still in the right trajectory and set to hit $50,000 in the long term. Furthermore, its neck-to-neck battle with gold continues as they try to outdo each other for the safe-haven status. 

Vijay Ayyar, the head of Luno’s Asia Pacific region, acknowledged:

“We’re talking about Bitcoin over the next three, five, 10 years slowly inching away at gold’s market capitalization.” 

If this happens, he believes that the $50,000 level will be breached. 

Bitcoin’s popularity skyrockets

Bitcoin’s fame has gone through the roof as it continues to cement its status as a safe-haven asset amid the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, which has necessitated financial measures like quantitative easing (QE) to bail out global economies. 

Matt Long, the head of distribution at OSL, explained:

“While Bitcoin has been popular for trading, increasingly the new to market money that we are seeing is buying Bitcoin as a hedge to inflation and as digital gold.” 

Earlier this month, leading American bank JPMorgan Chase & Co. noted that if Bitcoin continued to steal market share and public support from traditional safe-haven asset gold, then the price target of $146,000 could be hit in the long term.