Bitcoin Price to Reach $100K, Could Steal Attention from Gold: Goldman Sachs

The US multinational investment bank Goldman Sachs highlighted a scenario in which bitcoin hits the often-touted price milestone of $100,000. To reach that price level, institutional adoption towards the primary cryptocurrency needs to increase significantly and surpass gold.

Goldman Sachs Joins The $100K Club

The Wall Street behemoth has displayed a controversial approach to the cryptocurrency space over the years. It seems like its ever-changing view is influenced by the momentary situation of the digital asset industry.

Amid the parabolic price increases of most tokens in 2017, Goldman Sachs vowed to launch a crypto trading desk. Following the year-long bear market in 2018, though, the company halted the initiative.

Last year, the investment bank continued with its dubious views, jumping from supporting the cryptocurrency industry to claiming that bitcoin is not a substitute for gold but copper.

However, the leading digital asset marked a 60% price increase in 2021, and now Goldman Sachs went on the optimist’s corner once again. According to Zach Pandl – Co-Head of Global FX and EM strategy – if BTC continues to take market share from gold as part of its broader adoption, it could more than double its price in the next five years:

“If bitcoin’s share of the store of value market were “hypothetically” to rise to 50 percent over the next five years, its price would increase to just over $US100,000, for a compound annualized return of 17 percent or 18 percent.”

The executive estimated that as of the moment, bitcoin’s float-adjusted market capitalization is just under $700 billion, which is an approximate 20% share of the “store of value” (gold and Bitcoin) market. At the same time, the value of the precious metal available for investment is calculated at $2.6 trillion.

Zach Pandl, Source: Goldman Sachs

Is $100K Coming This Year?

Another prominent figure who envisioned this price tag for bitcoin is Antoni Trenchev – Co-Founder of the cryptocurrency lending platform Nexo. In his view, BTC is an inflation hedge equal to gold which, combined with the rising institutional adoption towards the asset, could drive its price towards $100K by the middle of 2022.

Nayib Bukele – the President of El Salvador – also expressed some bullish crypto predictions for the ongoing year. According to the leader, bitcoin could reach the milestone in the next 12 months, while at least two more countries will follow his nation’s path and adopt the primary digital asset as a legal tender.