Bitcoin reached a new all-time high (ATH), selling for $19,864.15 on Monday

Bitcoin momentously broke its 2017 high on Monday, recording a new one at $19,864.15. This had all the crypto evangelists out in full force, insisting the bull market in the leading crypto was now well and truly in place.

As expected, more lofty targets were trotted out – one at $50,000, the other at $500,000.

BTIG goes for $50K

In a colorful statement, analysts at global financial services firm BTIG said cryptocurrencies “had come of age,” and that bitcoin could scale $50,000 by the end of next year.

According to CNBC, BTIG commenced coverage of digital assets last week.

In its view, BTIG drew a line of difference between bitcoin’s previous high in 2017, and the one on Monday. The 2017 boom (and bust) was fuelled by retail speculators who pushed bitcoin to a bullish extreme – a “blow-off” top.

The current market in digital assets, however, has participation from corporates, major investors, and institutions. Platforms such as PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL), Square’s (NYSE: SQ) Cash App and Revolut have made it easy for investors to buy and sell bitcoin.

Meanwhile, because bitcoin suffers from a fixed, maximum supply of 21 million, there could be a demand-supply imbalance in the making.

The Winklevoss twins: $500,000

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss said Monday that Bitcoin could potentially reach $500,000 within the next 10 years and overtake gold as a store of value.

According to the Daily Mail, Cameron tweeted:

“#Bitcoin is an emergent store of value that defends against inflation and has the potential to unseat gold. This means it could appreciate 25x in value from $19K. No other liquid asset in the universe can credibly offer this magnitude of asymmetric payoff in the next decade.”

Meanwhile, Tyler said to CNBC on Monday:

“Our thesis is that Bitcoin is gold 2.0, that it will disrupt gold, and if it does that, it has to have a market cap of 9 trillion, so we think it could price one day at $500,000.”

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