Bitcoin seen topping $50,000 in long-term

Bitcoin's price could exceed $50,000 over the longer term as the digital asset vies with gold for investment flows, according to cryptocurrency exchange Luno and brokerage OSL.

"We're talking about Bitcoin over the next three, five, 10 years slowly inching away at gold's market capitalisation," Vijay Ayyar, head of Asia Pacific with Luno in Singapore, said on Tuesday. If that happens, 'you are way over $50,000,' he said.

Bitcoin quadrupled last year, eventually reaching an all-time high of almost $42,000 in early January, before sliding back by about $10,000. While Bitcoin has been popular for trading, "Increasingly the new-to-market money that we are seeing is buying Bitcoin as a hedge to inflation and as digital gold," said Matt Long, head of distribution and prime brokerage OSL in Hong Kong. Predicting a price for Bitcoin is challenging but it's likely to rise longer term as funds and family offices assign 0.5 per cent or 1 per cent of their portfolios to it, Long added. (Bloomberg)

Eric Lam & Gregor Stuart Hunter