Bank of America covers Bitcoin - 1300$ fair price, potential for growth

[Herp]

Very good news, but for some reason it feels strange that this is coming from a bank.

It's not strange at all. Banks want to be part of disruptive sectors where there's huge exponential growth potential. This is where the money is made.

[2sog]

I wonder if them saying that $1300 per coin is a fair price is a hint that BOA holds some coins and they have decided they want to offload a portion of them when it hits that price and by saying that the price will get that high so they can start the dump.

[Herp]

I wonder if them saying that $1300 per coin is a fair price is a hint that BOA holds some coins and they have decided they want to offload a portion of them when it hits that price and by saying that the price will get that high so they can start the dump.

It's not. Analysts from big banks just wanna play it safe to keep their job. They always put very conservative price targets.

They also tend to manipulate prices lower when they wanna buy or when they're short.

[Junkey]

I don't see a link to the 14-page doc submitted.  Just news about it.  Does anyone have a direct link?

[Imahara]

Here is the Bank of America report:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/885843-banks-research-report-on-bitcoin.html

I think it is a nice first effort. They fail to imagine second order effects. The use of cryptocurrency can alter the economy substantially, leading to more demand for transaction currency for example.

Transaction costs are the main reason behind vertical integration of the supply chain, take transaction costs away and the supply chain can disintegrate. Many more financial transactions just in getting a product to market, so more demand for transaction balances. Just an example.

[kireinaha]

Some of you guys really crack me up. BOA is not "giving up the fight" or "accepting their fate". They clearly recognize the potential of Bitcoin as an upcoming ecommerce payment system or a store of value, and as a bank, of course they're interested in the potential, because people are going to need to convert money between Bitcoin/USD.

[marketermac]

They clearly recognize the potential of Bitcoin as an upcoming ecommerce payment system or a store of value, and as a bank, of course they're interested in the potential, because people are going to need to convert money between Bitcoin/USD.

Hopefully their involvement also brings their lobbyists to keep strict regulation and laws away from the profits they'll be pulling in with BTC..they benefit we all benefit I'm guessing.

[davidgdg]

Interesting. Very positive for BTC. But strange on several levels:

...

3. Where does this number of 1300$ come from? My guess: They totally pulled it out of their asses... when you look at number of people, money supply, total available gold, etc, etc, that number is MUCH higher...

They get the number on the basis of:

* 5 Bn - assuming BTC gets a 10% share of global e-commerce

 +

* 4.5 Bn - based on BTC becoming a major player in the remittance market

+

+ 5 Bn - based on BTC becoming a store of value roughly along the lines of silver

Total 14.5 Bn divided by the number of bitcoins gives about 1,300 per coin.

The figures are very conservative and as others have remarked, what they completely overlook is the protocol/programmability aspect of BTC.

Still, interesting and vaguely positive.

[takagari]

Seems that number is based off all the coins possible..

Also seems like a nice trick to me. The bank come's out announces it, and give's BTC a top value not much higher than we are at already... Basically leaving people thinking "Cool but no real room left to grow so I'll go elsewhere!"

Nice play BOA, Nice play!

[PenAndPaper]

So bank of america wants bitcoin as a payments platform while bank of china wants it as a commodity
The one thing that it's sure is that noone wants it as a currency. I wonder why 

[zoro]

all coins can co-exist with fiat and banks. the methods are countless. one would be that banks can secure or quarantee
your wallets

[PenAndPaper]

all coins can co-exist with fiat and banks. the methods are countless. one would be that banks can secure or quarantee
your wallets

There is already a pretty ambitious project from cyprus for a bitcoin bank. Of course traditional banks have all the infrastracture ready but they have to jump to the wagon soon if they don't want to left behind for ever.

[jbreher]

What proof do we have that this is actually from BOA, rather than some teenage prank?

All I see so far is a tiny article on a bloggish pseudo-news site, and a .pdf with an improbable title hosted on some sketchy doc sharing site.

I'll be skeptical, pending something actually traceable to BOA.

[FandangledGizmo]

I posted this reply in another thread but personally, I believe the $1300 is specifically chosen because that is the number they want to keep Bitcoin below until the end of the year. It definitely appears to me that they don't want Bitcoin to stay above the gold price (Which is heavily supressed) till the end of the year and draw unwanted publicity to Bitcoin or Gold.
(Notice how the two big dips happened right around that level.)

From my other post

'They've done a lot of negative press lately and the last thing they want is articles on major magazines around the world going into Xmas season where families and groups discuss the hot topics of season as well as plan their investment strategy for the following year.  

Some headlines...

'In January it was cheaper than silver, today it's more expensive than gold'

'GOLD 2.0 - As Bitcoin overtakes the gold price we ask is Bitcoin the new gold?'

The cover of Time Magazine is just a question mark with the question 'Who is Satoshi?'

'Bitcoin up 10 000%+ in 2013, what will it do in 2014?'

The Chinese announcement, (Which wasn't awful but obviously caused the last dip), was made right after the David Cameron visited in China, (And he just works for the bankers in the City of London), so while they might have mentioned international trade in their discussions, I think it was mostly David Cameron saying to China 'Please, I beg you, pretty please, do whatever you want with Tibet we won't say a word, please just help us to keep Bitcoin below $1300 till the New Year.'

Bitcoin holding above $1300 for any period will bring unwanted Publicity to both Gold and Bitcoin for the bankers, who are hoping to keep peoples money in their bank accounts till the mass bail-ins begin at least.'


What could this also tell us? Maybe, that 'they' think that if Bitcoin can hold above gold before Xmas it could go to the moon next year, so c'mon Richard Branson make it so  

[darkmule]

Even as Banks go, BoA is particularly malevolent and corrupt.

[pening]

people need to start getting used to the idea that if Bitcoin makes its mark, the banks will be there.  that's what they do, make money from money.  given their existing resources and some of the issues with Bitcoin, they will end up running the network.  and if not the current banks, then those who run the network will be the banks.

[LiteCoinGuy]

the price target is stupid like this bank. when he really thinks that 1300 USD is the maximum, he doesnt understand bitcoin.

[takagari]

It's all about damage control!

[Herp]

The price targets bank analysts put on stocks go up all the time. I've seen it all before with many different stocks I've tracked over the years.

Expect BoA to raise their price target once btc goes above 1.3k. Guess some of you here are not familiar with how these "analysts" assign price targets. Their conservative btc price target is very normal, it's what they do in most cases. Just check the stocks covered by BoA analysts and you'll see what I'm talking about.

[dmartig]

They clearly recognize the potential of Bitcoin as an upcoming ecommerce payment system or a store of value, and as a bank, of course they're interested in the potential, because people are going to need to convert money between Bitcoin/USD.

Hopefully their involvement also brings their lobbyists to keep strict regulation and laws away from the profits they'll be pulling in with BTC..they benefit we all benefit I'm guessing.

this is naive. if they bring their lobbyists they will do what all fascists do. it is called regulatory capture. all regs will be written to benefit those at the top. pick an industry.

as sallie said in eddie and the cruisers " guys like you and me word man, they discover oil under our garden all we get is dead tomatoes"