Will Bitcoin reach US $ 5,000 in 2018?

Ronnie Moas, who has made more than 900 stock recommendations over the past 13 years through her program at Standpoint Research, has ventured into the arena of cryptones.

Bitcoin will double to $ 5,000 next year and will reach $ 25,000 to $ 50,000 over the next decade, Moas said from Miami Beach, Florida , in a note to customers Wednesday, where he also revealed that he bought "a Bit "of litecoin, bitcoin and ethereum in an account at Coinbase.com.

The stock analysts who previously did not talk about criptomonedas are starting to analyze and make bets on the sector is a testimony of the exuberance around Bitcoin, ethereum and other assets of blockchains. These analysts join bitcoin enthusiasts who expect long-term gains, even if they say that there could be a correction after the recent rise.

"There are only 21,000,000 bitcoins in circulation and the world will fight for those 21 million coins, while confidence in currency and other investments deteriorates," Moas wrote, referring to the algorithm that limits the amount of bitcoin that can be created . "I have no doubt that 1% of cash, bonds, stocks and gold will end up in criptomonedas".

Bitcoin has more than doubled this year to $ 3,000 as adoption increased, more institutional investors backed blockchain technology and the second largest digital currency, ether, became popular in rounds of fund-raising for technology companies . Bitcoin dropped to $ 2,544.40 today from its high on June 12 due to concerns that digital currencies can not achieve greater acceptance quickly enough and that their hikes have been exaggerated.

Moas says "he's only a little worried that there might be a short-term bubble," but in the long run, there's the potential for triple-digit returns.

Moas recommends securing Cryptomoneda holdings through services such as that offered by Trezor.io and reminds customers that their publication is only informative and should not be considered an investment advice or recommendation.
Top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization

Source: Standpoint Research

Moas' report comes just before a possible split in bitcoin Tuesday, if some developers go ahead with a scheduled upgrade known as Bitcoin Cash. Direct owners of bitcoin will then hold two versions of the digital currency.

"The market is telling you right now that we will get through this event tomorrow," Moas told CNBC in a phone interview Monday, noting bitcoin traded close to its all-time high.

The digital currency hit a record $3,025 in mid-June, fell to $1,837 in mid-July, before recovering about $1,000 to trade near $2,800 on Monday, according to CoinDesk.

Source: CoinDesk

Back on July 5, Moas told CNBC he bought some bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin and expects bitcoin could reach $5,000 "in a few months." He subsequently published an article on Reddit outlining his views on digital currencies.

Since then, institutional attention on bitcoin has only increased.

Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee became the first major Wall Street strategist to publish a report about bitcoin on July 7. Less than a week later, Switzerland's financial market regulator authorized the first Swiss bank to manage bitcoinfor clients, while the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission last Monday approved the first bitcoin options platform.

Last Tuesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also issued a report and investors bulletin on initial coin offerings, or sales of new digital coins.

"I have little doubt that 1% of the money in cash, bonds, stocks and gold will end up in cryptocurrencies," Moas wrote in his report.

Since the $80 billion cryptocurrency market right now is a 25th of 1 percent of the $200 trillion in gold, cash, stocks and bonds, Moas pointed out digital currencies will need to increase by 25 times in order to reach 1 percent of the overall capital market.

If cryptocurrencies become part of asset allocation models and take 2 to 4 percent of capital markets, then the digital currencies will likely increase 100 times in value, Moas said

To be sure, Moas also laid out a host of risks for investing in digital currencies, including inherent high volatility, large-scale hacks on cryptocurrency firms and potential regulation, especially in China, that could cause prices to "collapse."

In addition, Moas pointed out the lack of customer support for online digital currency products.

"There is no telephone support," he said in the report. "You must go to the FAQs section and spend a long time looking for the answer to whatever question you may have — and then you may not be happy with the answer. Your only other option is to send an email to customer support which could take anywhere from one-to-seven days to get a reply."

Coinbase, a popular website for buying and selling digital currencies in the U.S., has repeatedly reported website loading delays or outages in the last few months due to high customer traffic.

All that said, the stock analyst said he believes the time to buy digital currencies is now. He described in his report how investors can buy bitcoin, and why financial institutions are interested in the blockchain technology behind bitcoin and other digital currencies.

"I watched from the sidelines for a few years and it felt recently as if the train is leaving the station," Moas said. "I think we are still in the first quarter of a four quarter game and that even though I missed out on significant gains (2014 - 2016), it is not too late to get in."