There is little question 2017 will go down as the year Bitcoin went mainstream and transitioned from being the domain of geeks and anarco-capitalists into a legitimate asset class. In spite of technical jargon, bad actors, price volatility, and sensational media, Bitcoins price is up 343% year to date and an eye-popping 660% over the last twelve months, easily outstripping the return for any other asset class.

In the span of just months, crypto assets, the digital tokens necessary to participate into the revolutionary technology called blockchain, have become the hottest investment category in the world as a growing number of investment professionals and high net worth individuals have started to come in. Bitcoin is unquestionably the category’s bellwether commanding more than 50% of the $141 billion total crypto assets market capitalization. With a price now above $4,000 institutional and retail investors alike are wondering whether Bitcoin’s rally can continue and how high can the price of cryptocurrency go.

Over the last several months there has no be shortage of critics labeling Bitcoin a fad akin to the “tulip fever” of the XVII century. The typical argument against the viability of BItcoin as a replacement to “fiat currency” is exemplified in a recent report by Morgan Stanley: Bitcoin, claims the report, is not a viable alternative to any national currency as it can’t be practically used to pay for goods and services. Its current infrastructure does not provide for fast and convenient transactions and the network of merchants accepting it is still miniscule.

Those critics are missing the the true investment case for Bitcoin. They are not considering that store of value rather than mean of exchange is by far the common use case for money. In fact the overwhelming majority of the $69 Trillion in “M2”, a commonly used measure of “money” globally, only a fraction of it is used to pay for goods and services while the bulk is held by the owners as a store of value in bank accounts and other liquid instruments. In other words, Bitcoin should be framed as convenient and alternative way to store wealth more akin to gold than to a reserve currency.

It should not come as a surprise as Bitcoin was designed in 2009 in the throes of the global financial crisis as a defense from the vagaries of central banks and financial institutions. Almost ten years on, the case for hedging against “fiat” currencies has grown considerably stronger as policymakers in most major economies have “created” trillions of dollars out of thin air. Just in the US, Eurozone, UK, China and Japan, the balance sheets of the central banks has grown from $6.3 trillion at the beginning of 2008 to $18.8 trillion in July 2017.

As the global financial system is saddled with the largest stock of debt in the history of humanity, a default event is not a matter of “if” but rather “when”. If history is any guide, the brunt of such default will be born by currencies representing, in essence, IOUs for those governments who are now the largest borrowers in the world. As the future purchasing power of currencies is in question and the valuation of traditional asset classes is unappealing to say the least, Bitcoin is becoming a viable asset allocation option to manage risk and, at least for the earlier adopters, an opportunity to generate alpha returns to boot. One of Bitcoin’s greatest advantages against “fiat currencies” is that its supply is limited and its value is solely determined by the volume of bitcoin available to buyers. In other words bitcoin, like gold, can become an alternative store of value should traditional currencies fail by mean of default or inflation.

The finite availability of Bitcoin is also crucial to get an handle on how high the price may be before stabilizing.

If store of value is the primary use case for Bitcoin, then the most likely adopters are going to be the 15.4 million High Net Worth Individuals (“HNWI”) globally controlling $59.7 trillion in investable assets. The same group is also the more likely to deploy a more sophisticated asset allocation strategy to manage their portfolio and therefore adopt crypto assets. Let’s assume an average 1% allocation to Bitcoin as a percentage of investable assets among HNWI. That would represent $597 billion or, approximately 10x the current total market cap for Bitcoin. Furthermore there are other participants beside HNWI that that may find advantageous an allocation to Bitcoin as a way to differentiate their holdings and manage risk. Central Banks for one may want to add the crypto asset to their $13 trillion dollars in foreign currencies, largely composed of USD, and gold. Sovereign and pension funds, respectively $7.6 and $12.3 trillion of assets under management may also follow suit. All these financial institutions may have reasons to be concerned about diversification and future value of their fiat currency holdings. Any demand from these participant, however small, will create supplemental competition for the same limited supply of Bitcoins. Using the same 1% conservative assumption, we are looking on an aggregate basis at an additional $926 billion pent-up demand for Bitcoin, or 13x the current market cap.

While there are about $16.5 mio Bitcoin in circulation only about 70% are likely to be available for sale as an estimated 30% of all Bitcoins is locked in wallets that have never been used. Such wallets that were created pre-2011 and the private keys have probably been either lost or misplaced by the owners. Hence, because of the high encryption grade, 4.5 mio bitcoin are not transferable making the balance available for transaction only 12.0 mio. As Bitcoin adoption among HNWI and institutions is still very small, and even assuming a very large number current owners were willing to part ways with their beloved coins, a stabilized price for Bitcoin would be $77,166 in case of a 1% allocation for a market cap of almost $1 trillion. Still arguably less than other comparable asset classes such as Gold ($7 trillion), US treasuries ($37 trillion) or global M2 (approx $70 trillion)

Least but not last, we have yet to see what happens to Bitcoin’s price in a case of global financial turmoil. If the above logic holds true and Bitcoin becomes a “flight to safety”, we may see a level of “panic” buying that is simply hard to imagine. In that kind of scenario, the percentage of total asset value switching into Bitcoin and other crypto assets may be far higher than the 1% asset allocation assumed above.

Bitcoin may not yet be convenient to buy a cup of coffee not to mention the extreme price swings, yet the investment case for the cryptocurrency as an hegde against fiat currency devaluation is very clear. While it is very likely we will continue to see extreme price volatility, the sheer nature of supply and demand may also eventually propel the price much higher.

Pietro Ventani is a Singapore-based asset allocation strategy advisor and a private equity/VC investor. He purchased his first bitcoin in April 2013.