Institutions buying Bitcoin rather than gold as inflation cranks up
According to JPMorgan this week’s rally has been driven by institutional investors hedging against inflation with Bitcoin. Bitcoin (BTC) has led a 35% rally this week by soaring far above the $50,000 resistance level and restoring a $1 trillion market capitalization to the asset. According to a note shared by JPMorgan with clients on Thursday, the recent increase in price for BTC was predominantly attributed to institutional investors looking for a hedge to inflation.
"The re-emergence of inflation concerns among investors has renewed interest in the usage of Bitcoin as an inflation hedge," the analysts said, arguing there has been a shift in perception as to the merits of BTC in relation to gold. "Institutional investors appear to be returning to Bitcoin perhaps seeing it as a better inflation hedge than gold"
Institutions aren't alone there: Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary stated earlier this week that crypto now accounts for a larger allocation in his portfolio than gold does. The momentum toward Bitcoin is in contrast to a JPMorgan report in May, when analysts noted big investors at the time were switching out of Bitcoin and into traditional gold.
JPMorgan provided two other factors it believes are behind the current rally: "The recent assurances by US policy makers that there is no intention to follow China's steps towards banning the usage or mining of cryptocurrencies," the analysts noted, as well as: "The recent rise of the Lightning Network and 2nd layer payments solutions helped by El Salvador's Bitcoin adoption."
Unlike other analysts this week, JPMorgan did not cite speculation around the imminent approval of a Bitcoin futures ETF as a significant driver of the price. BTC now trades at $53,884.76 according to CoinMarketCap at the time of writing. Despite some divisions of JPMorgan expressing a growing interest in crypto assets and blockchain initiatives, CEO Jamie Dimon stated in an interview on Oct. 22 that he remains a skeptic of BTC and even compared it to “a little bit of fool’s gold”.
Top Cryptocurrencies with Price Predictions
| # | Crypto | Prediction | Accuracy | CVIX | Price | 24h | 7d | Market Cap | 7d price change | |
| 1 |  BTC |
Bitcoin predictions | 72.8% | 51 | $27 686.50 | -1.54% | 12.26% | $535 055 944 515 |  |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 |  ETH |
Ethereum predictions | 82% | 34 | $1 753.83 | -2.24% | 5.65% | $214 622 976 485 |  |
|
| 3 |  USDT |
Tether predictions | 92.4% | 1 | $1.002131 | 0.08% | -0.07% | $77 601 370 004 |  |
|
| 4 |  BNB |
Binance Coin predictions | 77.2% | 47 | $324.49 | -3.72% | 0.92% | $51 234 239 201 |  |
|
| 5 |  USDC |
USD Coin predictions | 90.4% | 2 | $0.999458 | 0.08% | -0.04% | $34 703 015 524 |  |
|
| 6 |  XRP |
XRP predictions | 87.2% | 17 | $0.451417 | -1.31% | 23.74% | $23 000 119 507 |  |
|
| 7 |  HEX |
HEX predictions | 62.4% | 82 | $0.123358 | 18.48% | 52.30% | $21 391 630 916 |  |
|
| 8 |  ADA |
Cardano predictions | 73.6% | 46 | $0.369965 | -1.76% | 12.89% | $12 844 876 045 |  |
|
| 9 |  STETH |
Lido stETH predictions | 94.4% | 1 | $2 941.39 | -0.40% | -3.32% | $10 258 752 564 |  |
|
| 10 |  DOGE |
Dogecoin predictions | 68.8% | 57 | $0.075005 | -1.31% | 6.24% | $9 950 971 303 |  |
|
| 11 |  MATIC |
Polygon predictions | 71.2% | 51 | $1.12 | -1.91% | -0.94% | $9 797 674 979 |  |
|
| 12 |  SOL |
Solana predictions | 70.4% | 54 | $21.69 | -3.00% | 10.97% | $8 322 389 970 |  |
|
| 13 |  BUSD |
Binance USD predictions | 94.4% | 1 | $0.999370 | -0.05% | -0.07% | $8 058 942 746 |  |
|
| 14 |  DOT |
Polkadot predictions | 74% | 51 | $6.17 | -2.34% | 2.98% | $7 212 834 820 |  |
|
| 15 |  LTC |
Litecoin predictions | 68.4% | 58 | $87.92 | 8.34% | 11.30% | $6 377 673 020 |  |
