Even the skeptics can't avoid weighing in on bitcoin.

It seems like everyone is coming up with a price forecast thesedays, with some of the biggest banks including Goldman Sachs GroupInc. jumping into the action, while speculators to long-timeinvestors are also making their bets.

The consensus is that the biggest cryptocurrency will face some resistance around$4,500 to $4,800 and correct, to then continue rallying. How high?Pantera Capital Management's Paul Veradittakit, Tom Lee atFundstrat Global Advisors and John Spallanzani at GFI Group Inc.see it going to $6,000 by year-end, while Ronnie Moas at StandpointResearch says it will keep rising to $7,500 in 2018.

Bitcoin has been on a tear this year, more than tripling invalue as it crossed the $4,000 mark and touched a record $4,477last week. It's since retreated about 7 percent from the high asinvestors took profit and assessed whether the rally had gone toofar. Growing adoption and institutional investor interest,agreement on a mechanism to speed up transactions and regulatorysteps that will help the asset broaden its reach are some of thereasons that explain the gains.

“We're in a very healthy position right now,”said Veradittakit, vice president of Pantera Capital, whichhas invested in bitcoin since 2014. “There's a lot of interest fromtraders and mainstream finance on the rise of all these new crytpocurrencies, but when they first get exposure into the space,they'll go into bitcoin. It has the most liquidity and biggestbrand name.”

Veradittakit said bitcoin will hover around current levels andrally further once the underlying technology is upgraded inNovember, when the block size in the bitcoin blockchain is set todouble to two megabytes, increasing transaction speed. He's alsoencouraged by reports from the local exchanges Pantera invests inthat cross-border transactions are increasing.

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But the road ahead might get rocky. Goldman Sachs technicalanalyst Sheba Jafari wrote in a note to clients Aug. 13 thatbitcoin could erase around 40 percent of its value afterreaching $4,827. On a separate note, Goldman Sachs analysts saidthe space is getting big enough at over $100 billion in marketcapitalization that it warrants watching.

Spallanzani, chief macro strategist at GFI Group, also predictsa sizeable fall to as low as $3,000 unless it manages to break the$4,500 level it tested last week. But then it should rebound andclimb to as high as $10,000 in 2018, he said.

“It will have to retrace a bit more before we have enough powerto break through,” Spallanzani said. He recommends buying bitcoinwhen it's above $3,800 and selling when its below that level.

Some analysts have steered clear of making price predictions,while still dipping their toes in bitcoin waters.

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Tom Price, a Morgan Stanley equity strategist, said bitcoincompares to gold in that both offer similar benefits as a store ofvalue, such as being fungible, durable, portable, divisible andscarce. Still, a lot of time and trust-building will be neededbefore it becomes clear whether bitcoin will also undermine demandfor the metal, he said.

Cryptocurrencies including bitcoin are still very volatile andthus not particularly safe, but that could change as their valuerises and liquidity increases, wrote Bank of America MerrillLynch strategists Martin Mauro, Cheryl Rowan and Matthew Trappearlier this month. They score well when it comes todiversification, as their correlation to equities, bonds,commodities, currencies or selected measures of risk is near zero,the strategists said.

More longer term, bitcoin will climb to $25,000 by 2022,Fundstrat's Lee said, as recent regulatory approval for optionstrading and settlement implies a “significant rise in institutionalholdings” of bitcoin, while he estimates user accounts are likelyto rise 50 percent and usage per account to climb 30 percent.

Moas of Standpoint Research said in an Aug. 14 report thatbitcoin could rise to $50,000 by 2027 as he expects cryptocurrencyusers will grow to as high as 100 million users from 10 milliontoday in the next couple of years.

“It looks to me as though we are at the same point in theadoption curve as we were in 1995” with the Internet, Moas wrote.“Cryptocurrency is becoming more widely accepted by the day.”

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