by Florian Callens
published on Wednesday April 24, 2024 to 07:45 •
2 min read
The Bitcoin price could still rise to $150,000 this year. This is what Geoff Kendrick, head of digital assets research at banking group Standard Chartered, predicts. If that prediction is correct, it means that the value of the digital currency should increase by 127 percent compared to the current rate.
The past few months have been volatile for Bitcoin. After a period of relative stability, the price rose to record highs in February and March. The value even reached $73,000 at the time. Since then, however, the currency has cooled down somewhat and its value has fallen by about 11 percent.
Optimism despite recent decline
Despite the recent decline, Standard Chartered remains optimistic about the future of Bitcoin. Analyst Geoff Kendrick reiterated in an interview with BNN Bloomberg that the bank still has a price target of $ 150,000 for the end of this year.
Kendrick sees several reasons to believe that Bitcoin will rise again in the coming months. For example, there is the inflow of institutional money. Since its approval in January, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) focused on Bitcoin have raised around $12 billion. The analyst expects institutional money inflows to increase to as much as $50 billion to $100 billion over the next two years as the crypto-EFT market matures in the United States.
Halving
In addition, the recent halving of Bitcoin, where the reward for mining new Bitcoins was halved, has caused a decrease in supply. This could lead to a rise in the price in the past. The previous three halvings were each accompanied by new record highs in the following twelve months.
Standard Chartered has long been one of the most optimistic analysts about Bitcoin. The banking group not only predicts a rise to $150,000 this year, but even expects the rate to reach $250,000 by 2025.
