Crypto Currents: JPMorgan eyes $165,000 bitcoin as Avalanche unit goes public

JPMorgan has set a lofty price target for bitcoin, citing a surge in the “debasement trade” as investors hedge against fiat currency devaluation. Meanwhile, institutional adoption continues with Avalanche Treasury announcing plans to go public via a SPAC merger, and Robinhood’s CEO calling tokenization a “freight train” set to remake finance. Stay up on the crypto news that matters with “Crypto Currents,” daily from The Fly. Join us 2 PM daily for your essential briefing on the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency on FlyCast radio. Also, subscribe to our YouTube channel for the Crypto Fly By weekly recap.

JPMORGAN SEES ‘DEBASEMENT TRADE’ PUSHING BITCOIN TO $165K: According to a new research report from CoinDesk, banking giant JPMorgan (JPM) stated that bitcoin (BTC-USD) could climb to approximately $165,000 on a volatility-adjusted basis relative to gold. Analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou attribute the potential upside to the growing momentum of the so-called “debasement trade,” which involves purchasing assets like bitcoin or gold to hedge against the devaluation of fiat currencies. The bank’s projection comes as retail investors have accelerated their embrace of the theme, pouring capital into both bitcoin and gold exchange-traded funds since late 2024. The report notes that while retail buyers are driving much of the activity through ETFs, institutional investors have also been participating, mainly through Chicago Mercantile Exchange bitcoin and gold futures.

AVALANCHE TREASURY ARM TO LIST ON NASDAQ VIA $675M SPAC DEAL: Avalanche Treasury announced a definitive business combination agreement with Mountain Lake Acquisition Corp. (MLAC) valued at over $675M. According to CoinDesk, the deal aims to create a publicly traded vehicle for institutional exposure to the Avalanche ecosystem, with a long-term goal of building a digital asset treasury of over $1B of avalanche (AVAX-USD) tokens. The combined company plans to list on Nasdaq in early 2026, pending regulatory approval. The venture has attracted backing from a wide range of institutional and crypto-native investors, including Dragonfly, ParaFi, VanEck, Galaxy Digital (GLXY), Pantera, CoinFund, and Kraken, among others.

ALLOYX LAUNCHES TOKENIZED FUND AS ROBINHOOD CEO CALLS TOKENIZATION A ‘FREIGHT TRAIN’: AlloyX has launched a tokenized money market fund on the Polygon network with custody services provided by Standard Chartered. The product, called RYT, is designed to integrate with decentralized finance to create yield-enhancing strategies within a regulated framework. Last month, AlloyX was acquired by Solowin Holdings (SWIN) for $350M. The broader trend of tokenizing real-world assets was underscored by Robinhood (HOOD) CEO Vlad Tenev, who told Bloomberg that tokenization “is a freight train and it’ll eat the entire financial system”.

OPENAI VALUATION SOARS TO $500B AFTER SECONDARY SHARE SALE: Bloomberg reports that OpenAI has reached a $500B valuation following a secondary share sale, making it the world’s largest startup, surpassing Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The deal involved employees selling $6.6B in stock to investors including Thrive Capital and SoftBank Group (SFTBY). At its new valuation, OpenAI now towers over major publicly traded crypto firms; for comparison, Coinbase (COIN) has a market cap of about $92B, according to Google Finance data.

PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin (BTC-USD) was trading at $118,899.54, while ether (ETH-USD) was trading at $4,375.45, according to price data from CoinDesk.