An analyst from global banking giant Deutsche Bank expects Bitcoin will enjoy a “first-mover advantage" over other cryptocurrencies for the foreseeable future.

Marion Laboure, an analyst at Deutsche Bank’s research division, said she can envision Bitcoin taking the role of digital gold in the future: lasting for centuries and largely not controlled by the government.

In an update to Deutsche Bank’s website on “what’s next” for the largest banking institution in Germany, Laboure said she could “potentially see Bitcoin to become the 21st century digital gold,” but warned investors against the crypto asset’s volatility. According to the analyst, most Bitcoin (BTC) purchases are made for investments and speculation rather than keeping the coins for a medium of exchange. 

“Just a few additional large purchases or market exits can significantly impact the supply-demand equilibrium,” said Laboure. “[Bitcoin] is too volatile to be a reliable store of value today. And I expect it to remain ultra-volatile in the foreseeable future.”

Though the Deutsche Bank analyst expressed concern about the lack of regulation over cryptocurrencies as well as their potential impact on the environment, she hinted that Bitcoin would likely remain the dominant digital asset in the crypto space. Ethereum may have more use cases in decentralized finance and with the rise in non-fungible tokens, but Bitcoin still enjoys its “first-mover advantage.”

“If Bitcoin is sometimes called ‘digital gold’, Ethereum would then be the ‘digital silver.’”

Related: Bitcoin 'pushing aside' gold as a store of value

Deutsche Bank analysts have previously described Bitcoin as a cryptocurrency “too important to ignore, suggesting that the price of the crypto asset would likely rise with additional asset managers and companies entering the market. In 2019, the financial institution predicted that digital currencies would replace fiat by 2030.