Bank of America Analyst Raises Price Target of Bitcoin to $87,000

Bank of America analyst on Monday upgraded Bitcoin to a buy rating and raised its price target to $87,000.

"We’ve now hit a critical mass of institutional engagement [in crypto]. Everyone from the major banks to PayPal and Square is getting more involved, which is a loud and clear signal that crypto is now an official asset class," said Shabir Ally in Monday's Jim Cramer's CNBC interview.

“I have yet to find somebody who has really done their homework on crypto assets that isn’t truly amazed by the potential for the asset class."

When Jim Cramer asked "But what makes a crypto like bitcoin—which has no income, no practical uses and high volatility—a good store of value?" Shabir Ally responded "because “the world has voted that they believe it is."

He believes that institutional investors today should treat bitcoin as a macro asset, akin to gold.

GS commodity analyst Mikhail Sprogis and Jeff Currie, Global Head of Commodities Research, for their part, argue that cryptos can act as stores of value, but only if they have other real world uses that create value and temper price volatility. This, they say, best positions cryptos whose blockchains offer the greatest potential for such uses, like ether, to become the dominant digital store of value. More broadly, Currie contends that cryptos are a new class of asset that derive their value from the information being verified and the size and growth of their networks, but that legal challenges to their future growth loom large due to their decentralized and anonymous nature.