By Alicia Maher
Bitcoin and the general crypto market may have started on the wrong footing this year, but analysts have never stopped predicting an uptrend and adoption of digital assets in various economies of the world. One man who has joined the wagon in predicting the future of crypto, particularly BTC, is Zach Pandl of Goldman Sachs.
Pandl expects Bitcoin to be the new store of value and overtake gold in the market shares. According to him, Bitcoin already has a 20% market share and a market cap sitting at $700B. Gold, on the other hand, has a market capitalization of $2.6T.
Given the statistics, Bitcoin is still a long way from catching up with gold. But, Pandl thinks that the flagship asset will take a bigger portion of the market shares, and in that process, will outpace gold.
Market Cap Comparison Can Put Bitcoin On The Right Path
A store of value refers to an asset that can hold up for a long time without declining. Precious metals, such as gold is an example of an asset with a high store of value. Goldman Sachs reveals that Bitcoin has several use cases beyond the store of value, and this could play a big part in its rise to surpass gold.
The American Investment bank also thinks that comparing BTC’s market cap to that of gold can lead to increased BTC returns. It didn’t end there. The multinational financial services company believes that if Bitcoin holds more than half of the market share, the price will hit $100,000, which many experts before now has predicted.
Bitcoin Still In The Red Zone
Experts and investors were looking forward to the new year for Bitcoin recovery, but their expectations were cut short. The new year started with Bitcoin further shedding about a thousand dollars and is now currently consolidating between $45k and $48k. Bitcoin has failed to surpass its A.T.H. of $69k attained last November.
The crypto bear reflected on BTC addresses. Glassnode revealed that the number of BTC addresses in profit hit a 5-month low. Despite its volatility and market instability last year, BTC still ranked at the top of Goldman Sachs’s scorecard for market returns in 202, posting over 60% returns. On the other hand, gold ranked bottom with a loss of 4%.
Cryptos are generally believed to exhibit the characteristics of stocks instead of currencies. This is believed to be so due to the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies. Bloomberg refers to Bitcoin as digital gold, and the behavior of gold is often likened to Bitcoin because of their behavior. Gold, like BTC, serves as a hedge against inflation and the totalitarian system initiated by fiat currencies.