Bitcoin is set to rise even further later this year, even after the recent price decline, according to a leading crypto analyst at Standard Chartered. Jeffrey Kendrick, head of currency research West and digital assets at Standard Chartered, said in a research note this week that he believes bitcoin will rise to $150,000 per coin and ether will reach $8,000 by the end of 2024, then is expected to double under the bank’s bullish forecast earlier this year. “We believe that the bad news has already been priced into BTC and ETH, and that positive structural factors will once again take over as the negative factors fade,” Kendrick said in an April 22 note. “Also, the market positioning is now much cleaner than it was; On April 13, $261 million worth of leveraged long positions were removed from BTC futures alone—the largest daily liquidation since at least October 2023—in response to Iran’s attack on Israel that day. ” Kendrick was referring to the liquidation of speculative trading in Bitcoin, which has been supplemented by investors using leveraged funds to make larger bets on the cryptocurrency’s future price movements. Bitcoin temporarily dipped below $60,000 last week as traders reacted to news of escalating military conflict between Iran and Israel. Although cryptocurrency proponents see Bitcoin as a hedge against periods of economic and geopolitical instability, Bitcoin has behaved more like traditional risk assets such as stocks in recent years as more institutional investors have poured money into it. asset. In fact, Bitcoin trading has shown that they can often react to bad news faster than stock traders, since the cryptocurrency market operates 24/7, while stocks and other traditional markets only trade on weekdays. However, despite Bitcoin’s losses following Iran’s recent attack on Israel, Kendrick believes the cryptocurrency has the potential to rise in the coming months and reach a new all-time high, well above the $73,797.68 price reached on March 14. Kendrick said there was a supply shock from the bitcoin halving — which limits the supply of new bitcoin issues to 3.125 bitcoin, or about $208,360.31 as of Wednesday, down from 6.25 bitcoin — as well as the emergence of new bitcoin exchange-traded funds. which absorb billions of dollars The value of cryptocurrency on exchanges will support prices by the end of 2024. This is despite the token struggling with a host of other bad news, including a halt in the flow of new Bitcoin ETFs in the United States; weakening expectations for US ether spot ETF approval; Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit against decentralized exchange Uniswap; higher US Treasury yields; and escalating tensions in the Middle East. “Yes, BTC ETF inflows into the US have stalled, but we have now halved the inflows needed to cover net new supply and the global ETF backdrop (UK, Hong Kong) is improving. the last couple of weeks have meant that the positioning in the market has become much clearer,” Kendrick said. “As a result, with tensions in the Middle East easing, I think it is time to re-engage with the medium-term and long-term prospects.”
