Investing.com - Cryptocurrency prices gained on Thursday. Morningstar analyst Kristoffer Inton’s comments received some attention as he said Bitcoin is not likely to surpass gold in terms of investment and popularity.
“Amid the growing hype, some even floated the idea that cryptocurrency could one day replace gold as one of the world’s most widely accepted investment assets,” said Inton.
“In order to assess the threat, we’ve created a framework to grade any asset class’s viability as a safe haven by focusing on liquidity, functional purpose, scarcity of supply, future demand certainty, and permanence. Through this framework, we conclude that cryptocurrency does not and will not challenge gold as a safe-haven asset class,” he continued.
“If cryptocurrency were to displace gold’s investment case, the implications for gold prices would be devastating. 40% of gold demand relates to investment, so a shift in investment from gold to cryptocurrency would be a seismic shock.”
Bitcoin traded 2.0% higher to $6,611.8 at 12:30AM ET (04:30 GMT) on the Bitifinex exchange.
Ethereum gained 3.2% to $226.8 in the previous 24 hours.
XRP rebounded 5% to $0.54529 on the Poloniex exchange, while Litecoin also rose 2.9% at $59.145.
In other news, Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange, said in a statement on Wednesday that it invested A$3.5 million ($2.5 million) in Australian distributed ledger technology (DLT) payment company TravelByBit. The Japan-based crypto exchange is aiming to develop a point-of-sale payment system across airports worldwide, according to the statement.
In August, Brisbane-based TravelByBit received A$100,000 from the Queensland government to promote local tourism.