Bitcoin is 2019’s best-performing asset thanks to the massive rise in the price of the cryptocurrency, and a growing chorus on Wall Street proclaims that BTC’s terrific momentum won’t be dying out anytime soon.

Canaccord Genuity, an investment banking and wealth management company based out of Vancouver, published a research note predicting that the price will gradually climb back to $20,000 by March 2021.

“Bitcoin has started to form the spring 2019 bottom we began mentioning last year, although a close look at the chart suggests the recovery may be slightly ahead of itself. Looking ahead, if bitcoin were to continue following the same trend, the implication is a slow climb back toward its all-time high of ~$20,000, theoretically reaching that level in March 2021.”

CANACCORD: DATA INDICATES RISING DEMAND FOR BTC

Canaccord analysts based their bullish bitcoin price forecast on key variables that indicate an uptick in demand.

The first is BTC’s daily estimated transaction volume, which has shot up to $801 million so far in May, compared to $743 million in April and $521 million in March. This is the highest daily estimated transaction value of bitcoin since November 2018.

Don’t be surprised if the number goes higher as we are still in the second week of May, and global economic tensions could boost bitcoin demand and price.

In a period where:

—political tensions escalate between US and China,

—global equity markets fall sharply

—VIX largest spike in many months

—global yield curves flatten/invert#bitcoin has RISEN and >$6,000 Crypto showing its value as an uncorrelated asset. — Thomas Lee (@fundstrat) May 9, 2019

The second parameter Canaccord highlights is the rising number of confirmed transactions per day.

So far this month, the number of confirmed transactions averages 387,000 on a daily basis, compared to 366,000 transactions last month. What’s more, the May figure is a big jump over March 2018 when the number of bitcoin transactions had averaged just 185,000 per day.

Canaccord also noted that the average transaction size, which is calculated by dividing the daily estimated transaction value by the number of confirmed transactions, is at $2,047 thus far in May. This value was nearly 15% lower just a couple of months back.

INSTITUTIONAL ADOPTION REMAINS CRUCIAL

Canaccord believes that an uptick in institutional interest in bitcoin remains a crucial catalyst for the price of the flagship cryptocurrency. The research note says:

“Bitcoin’s most compelling case for institutional investors may be as an uncorrelated asset to stocks, bonds, gold and oil, as bitcoin continues to demonstrate low correlation to other asset classes.”

This indicates that wealthy investors could view the digital currency as a solid alternative to other asset classes. Not surprisingly, big institutional players are now willing to making a deeper push into bitcoin.

Fidelity Digital Assets, a subsidiary of asset manager Fidelity Investments that has $2.46 trillion in AUM (assets under management), recently carried out a survey of 411 institutional investors in the US. The survey found out that nearly half of the respondents are comfortable with owning digital assets in their portfolios.

We asked: what do institutions really think about #digitalassets? https://t.co/3Lq5h5ITbT — Fidelity Digital Assets (@DigitalAssets) May 2, 2019

WALL STREET’S CRYPTO CHORUS BELTS OUT A BULLISH ANTHEM

Fidelity and Canaccord are just two voices in Wall Street’s growing chorus of crypto bulls.

Mike Novogratz, a Wall Street executive and the founder of crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital, expects the bitcoin price hit $10,000 by the end of the year. He also estimates that the market will hit a new all-time high in the next 18 months.

Earlier this month, independent research firm Fundstrat Global Advisors said that bitcoin looks all set for a rally in the second half of the year based on technical indicators. Now that the bitcoin price is well beyond Fundstrat’s $6,000 resistance target, co-founder Tom Lee’s forecast of new all-time highs by 2020 could come true.

Wall Street’s growing interest in cryptocurrency is proof that those who predicted the death of the digital asset at the peak of the crypto winter last year were ridiculously short-sighted. That said, it isn’t too late for the bears to switch teams – there’s still plenty of profit to be made before the bitcoin price breaches $20,000.