Wall Street strategist believes Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are cannibalizing gold demand with price going as high as $55,000 per coin

Over the past month, Wall Street banks such as Goldman Sachs have begun integral analysis into Bitcoin and the entire cryptocurrency sphere, especially in light of the fact that many of their clients had been hounding them for guidance on this asset.  And with more and more venture capitalists, as well as billionaire investors, not only citing positive coverage for Bitcoin and Ethereum but also in creating their own blockchain platforms, the mainstream will likely be reporting on cryptocurrencies in the future in line with their coverage of most other securities.

And on July 7 one of those Wall Street analysts came out publicly with a forecast for Bitcoin, and even went as far to say that money going into the cryptocurrency was playing a large role in 'cannibalizing' money that would have gone into gold and silver. 

Fundstrat's Tom Lee on Friday became the first major Wall Street strategist to formally lay out his views on bitcoin. 

The digital currency could be worth as much as $55,000 by 2022, Lee said in a report titled "A framework for valuing bitcoin as a substitute for gold." 

"We believe one of the drivers [of bitcoin] is crypto-currencies are cannibalizing demand for gold," Lee said in the report. "Based on this premise, we take a stab at establishing valuation framework for bitcoin. Based on our model, we estimate that bitcoin's value per unit could be $20,000 to $55,000 by 2022." - CNBC

Indeed, the charts for both Bitcoin and for gold have shown moves in opposite directions, which validates that especially over in Asia, many investors are putting their cash into cryptocurrencies to the detriment of gold.

At what point will Wall Street move full bore into Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency sphere is still up in the air, especially with the SEC having shot down one attempt to turn Bitcoin into a paper trading ETF.  But for now the cryptos are becoming a viable go to asset class for investors who want to get out of overvalued stocks and currencies, while not having to deal with the unwieldiness of taking delivery of kilograms or tons of physical gold.