Some investors have predicted even bigger gains for Bitcoin, despite continued criticism of the cryptocurrency by JPMorgan Chase (JPM)CEO Jamie Dimon, who has called the coin "worthless."
“Every single day, the concept that it could be worth something, it could be a store of value is being continually approved by more large, powerful entities,” Johnson says, pointing to established financial institutions holding digital currencies and large corporations adding them to their corporate balance sheets. “The idea that it’s actually worth something is continuing to grow as adoption and acceptance continues to grow as well.”

While paying for things in cryptocurrencies doesn’t make sense for most people right now, more retailers accepting payments might change that landscape in the future. It’ll likely be much longer before it’ll be a smart financial decision to spend Bitcoin on goods or services, but further institutional adoption could bring about more use-cases for everyday users, and in turn, have an impact on crypto prices. Nothing is guaranteed, but if you buy cryptocurrency as a long-term store of value, the more “real world” uses it has, the more likely demand and value will increase.
OK perhaps that’s a little far-fetched. But what is behind crypto’s crazy climb over the past 18 months, we hear you ask? We don’t mean to suggest that the pandemic hasn’t been involved, because we think it has, but not in the way that this chart criminal implies — not, in other words, because it’s some kind of safe haven that traders flock to when they are worried about Covid cases rising; the data don’t bear that idea out.