Bitcoin Hits Milestone vs. Gold as Cycle Pattern Flags $120K by Year-End: Van Straten

The market price of bitcoin, priced in gold hit an all-time high of 39 ounces.

Dec 5, 2024, 11:26 a.m. UTC

Bitcoin (BTC), Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said yesterday, is not a competitor of the U.S. dollar but to gold.

Not only did the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization soar through $100,000 during Asia trading hours, reaching a record $104,000, it's also at an all-time high when priced in gold, worth about 39 ounces, breaking through the last remaining resistance level for that trading pair. It has also hit records against silver and the S&P 500.

The price action means bitcoin is now an over-$2 trillion asset class, with its sights on overtaking Google (GOOG), whose market cap is $2.14 trillion, and Amazon (AMZ) at $2.29 trillion. That would happen if it hit $115,000 a token and make it the fifth-largest global asset.

Where to from here?

Many data points are looking at an extremely bullish end of the year for bitcoin, and why not? It's already up 132% in 2024.

Measuring from the cycle low, which took place during the collapse of crypto exchange FTX back in November 2022, when the price was hovering around $15,000, bitcoin has increased almost sevenfold.

This is typical. Measuring bitcoin from the cycle low against the previous two cycles, bitcoin is currently in between both these cycles in terms of returns. If bitcoin were to finish in between the two previous cycles as it has been doing for much of this cycle, a price target of around $120,000 a token is probable.

BTC: Price Performance Since Cycle Low (Glassnode)

James Van Straten

As the senior analyst at CoinDesk, specializing in Bitcoin and the macro environment. Previously, working as a research analyst at Saidler & Co., a Swiss hedge fund, introduced to on-chain analytics. James specializes in daily monitoring of ETFs, spot and futures volumes, and flows to understand how Bitcoin interacts within the financial system. James holds more than $1,000 worth of bitcoin, MicroStrategy (MSTR), Semler Scientific (SMLR), IREN (IREN), MARA Holdings (MARA), Cipher Mining (CIFR), Bitfarms (BITF), Riot Platforms (RIOT) and CleanSpark (CLSK).