Bitcoin ETF Hype Cooling, But BTC Will Still Hit $150,000: Standard Chartered

By Mat Di Salvo

A “perfect storm” of recent negative headwinds won’t hold Bitcoin back, and the price of the top digital asset will still reach $150,000 per coin this year, according to Standard Chartered. 

A report from the British multinational bank said Tuesday that despite war in the Middle East, higher Treasury yields, and a slowdown of cash entering recently approved Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the asset still has room to climb. 

Bitcoin hit a new all-time high of nearly $74,000 last month but has since plunged. The price of BTC now stands at $64,840, CoinGecko data shows. But Geoff Kendrick, digital assets researcher and lead author of the report, said that the biggest coin would continue to climb.

“ETF flows have likely stalled for a number of macro reasons, including higher Treasury yields and a more challenging backdrop for risk assets due to geopolitical developments in the Middle East,” he wrote.

“In addition, the initial wave of ETF buying may be mostly complete, and the next wave will have to wait for the inclusion of ETFs in broader macro funds (leading to a small allocation within diversified funds),” the report continued. “This may take time; for now, this strongly positive driver has stalled.”

Kendrick added: “We reiterate our end-2024 target levels of $150,000 for Bitcoin and $8,000 for Ethereum.” 

Standard Chartered first predicted last month that Bitcoin would hit $150,000 per coin this calendar year—and asserted that Ethereum would rocket, too. 

A massive sell-off started before the cryptocurrency’s halving and just as Iran launched an unprecedented attack on Israel. Even before those developments, though, less cash has been entering the hugely popular Bitcoin ETFs, which were approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission in January.

Though Bitcoin has made a comeback since trading for less than $17,000 in January 2023. The approval of several Bitcoin ETFs—which allow ordinary investors to get exposure to the asset via a brokerage account—has only helped push its price up this year.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.

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