Standard Chartered doubles down on predictions that bitcoin will hit $150,000 by the end of the year

Standard Chartered’s chief cryptocurrency analyst says bitcoin will continue to rise later this year, even with the recent pullback. Geoffrey Kendrick, head of FX research at Standard Chartered, West and head of digital assets research, said in a research note this week that he expects bitcoin to hit $150,000 per coin by the end of 2024, with Ethereum hitting $8,000 per coin – doubling from earlier this year. From the bank’s bullish predictions. “We believe the bad news for BTC and ETH has been priced in, and negative structural drivers will dominate again,” Kendrick said in an April 22 report, “Additionally, the market position is now much clearer than before; Millions of leveraged long positions were removed from BTC futures alone on April 13, the largest daily liquidation volume since at least October 2023, citing “concentrated liquidation of speculative bitcoin trades” in response to Iran’s attack on Israel that day. , which was fueled by investors using borrowed cash to make large bets on future movements in cryptocurrency prices. Bitcoin briefly fell below $60,000 last week as traders reacted to news of an escalating military conflict between Iran and Israel. While cryptocurrency proponents see bitcoin as a hedge against risk in times of economic and geopolitical turmoil, bitcoin has performed like stocks and others in recent years as more institutional investors poured money into the asset. In fact, Bitcoin trading shows that since the cryptocurrency market operates 24/7 while stocks and other traditional markets only trade on weekdays, it often reacts to bad news faster than stock traders. Still, despite bitcoin’s losses due to Iran’s recent attack on Israel, Kendrick believes the cryptocurrency is likely to move higher in the coming months and hit a new all-time high, higher than the March 14 hit. Value $73,797.68. Kendrick said the impact of a halving in bitcoin supply — where new bitcoin issuance was capped at 3.125 BTC, or $208,360.31, as of Wednesday, down from 6.25 BTC — and the impact of new bitcoin exchange-traded funds coming to the fore, said funds siphoning off billions of dollars. Dollars worth of cryptocurrencies from exchanges will drive up prices by the end of 2024. A slew of bad news for the token comes, including the prospect of US bitcoin ETF approval against decentralized exchanges UnisApp and Increase; Middle East. “Yes, US BTC ETF inflows have stalled, but now we’re halfway through, only half the inflows are needed to meet net new supply, and the global ETF backdrop (UK, Hong Kong) additionally, the past few weeks mean a clear market position,” Kendrick said. “So, with tensions in the Middle East easing, I think it’s time to return to the medium-term bull side.”