JPMorgan sees hope for Bitcoin as one of its leading ‘alternative assets’

Despite a huge sell-off in cryptocurrencies, JPMorgan believes that Bitcoin’s fair price is 28% higher than its present level. This would seem to signal a “significant upside from here.” In fact, the firm had also claimed that $38,000 would be a reasonable price for Bitcoin.

Cryptos have also replaced real estate as one of the bank’s favoured “alternative assets,” or assets that don’t fit into traditional categories like stocks and bonds. According to a note written by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou on Wednesday,

“The past month’s crypto market correction looks more like capitulation relative to last January/February and going forward we see upside for Bitcoin and crypto markets more generally.”

More room for crypto to grow

Cryptocurrencies have plummeted in 2022 after investors fled riskier assets. This has been the case due to growing inflation and interest rates, the crisis in Ukraine, and a downturn in China.

Bitcoin has lost roughly 37% of its value this year, while Ethereum has lost about 48%. From almost $3 trillion in November to $1.3 trillion in May, the entire market value of all cryptocurrencies has plummeted.

According to JPMorgan, cryptocurrencies have suffered more than other alternative investments such as private equity, private debt, and real estate as a result of the sell-off. This, the firm believes, indicates that cryptos have further room to recover.

Panigirtzoglou also stated that the global investment bank has replaced real estate as its main alternative asset class.  This, along with hedge funds too due to rising mortgage rates.

Furthermore, it is interesting to note that it is not just JPMorgan that holds this faith in Bitcoin. Wall Street giants are counting on the digital asset to recover soon. Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor, for instance, predicts that Bitcoin will “move into the millions.”

“We are in it for the long run,” he claimed, noting that Bitcoin represents the future of money.

How accurate is this hope?

Now, even though the banking giant is known for its right support for Bitcoin, this time around, the outflow and inflow numbers for Bitcoin are not quite convincing.

CoinShares’ latest Digital Asset Fund Flows Report found that Bitcoin was once again the main focus, with withdrawals totaling $154 million last week, while short Bitcoin saw outflows of $1.1 million. Year-to-date and month-to-date flows were both positive too, totaling $307 million and $187 million, respectively.

On the contrary, earlier this month, Bitcoin recorded inflows of around $45 million.

Bitcoin at $150,000?

In February, the investment bank determined the fair price of Bitcoin to be $38,000. Bitcoin was assumed to be four times as volatile as gold in this computation. Meanwhile, it hiked its long-term price target to $150,000 from $146,000.