Standard Chartered’s chief cryptocurrency analyst says that even with the recent price pullback, Bitcoin’s price will rise further later this year. Geoffrey Kendrick, head of FX research, West and digital asset research at Standard Chartered, said in a research note this week that he expects Bitcoin to rise to $1 per coin by the end of 2024 150,000, Ethereum will hit $8,000 per coin – doubling down on the bank’s optimistic forecast earlier this year. “We believe the bad news for BTC and ETH has been priced in, and as negative drivers subside, positive structural drivers will once again dominate,” Kendrick said in a report on April 22. “Additionally, market positioning It’s much cleaner now than before; $261 million in leveraged long positions were removed from BTC futures on April 13 alone, the largest daily liquidation volume since at least October 2023, in response to Iran’s attack on Israel that day Kendrick was referring to the liquidation of speculative Bitcoin trades, which have been exacerbated by investors using borrowed cash to make larger bets on future movements in the cryptocurrency’s price. Bitcoin temporarily fell below $60,000 last week in response to news of an escalation in the military conflict between Israel. Although supporters of the cryptocurrency believe that Bitcoin can be a hedge against risks in times of economic and geopolitical instability, in recent years, as the With more and more institutional investors pouring money into the asset, Bitcoin is behaving more like traditional risk assets like stocks. In fact, Bitcoin trading shows that because the cryptocurrency market operates 24/7, compared to stocks and other traditional risk assets. The market only trades on weekdays, so it typically reacts to bad news faster than stock traders. Still, despite Bitcoin’s losses due to Iran’s recent attacks on Israel, Kendrick believes the cryptocurrency is still vulnerable. It is possible to move higher in the coming months and reach a new all-time high well above the $73,797.68 price hit on March 14 on the arrival of exchange-traded funds that have siphoned off billions of dollars in crypto from exchanges. Currency value will support prices through the end of 2024. Inflows stall; expectations of U.S. approval of an Ethereum spot ETF weakened; SEC lawsuit against decentralized exchange Uniswap; U.S. Treasury yields rise; and tensions escalate in the Middle East. “Yes, US BTC ETF inflows have stalled, but now that we have passed the halving, only half the inflows are needed to meet the net new supply, and the global ETF backdrop (UK, Hong Kong) is improving. Additionally, The past few weeks have meant a clearer market positioning,” Kendrick said. “So, with tensions easing in the Middle East, I think it’s time to get back on the mid-term bull side.”
