Standard Chartered indicates that Bitcoin will reach $250,000 next year

According to Standard Chartered, Bitcoin could reach $250,000 next year.

In a report published yesterday, the bank, one of the world’s largest, said the digital currency is on track to reach $150,000 by the end of this year.

Standard Chartered analysts Geoff Kendrick and Suki Cooper, based in London and New York respectively, said the price could reach $250,000 “sometime in 2025” before ending the year at $200,000.

The report comes days after Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $73,803 before retreating. Last night it was trading around $68,000.

A rise to $250,000 would be welcomed by both crypto enthusiasts and the approximately five million British investors who own digital coins.

Moonshot: Standard Chartered, one of the world’s largest banks, said Bitcoin is on track to reach $150,000 by the end of this year

However, this is far from guaranteed and regulators continue to warn that anyone who buys a cryptocurrency like bitcoin could lose everything.

Bank of America chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett warned last week that markets are showing “the characteristics of a bubble.”

Bitcoin reached an earlier peak of nearly $69,000 at the end of 2021, but had fallen below $16,000 a year later.

Yields have risen sharply in recent months, buoyed by hopes that central banks around the world will start cutting interest rates in the coming months and by a major regulatory breakthrough in the US.

In January, the US watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission, approved 11 so-called exchange traded funds (ETFs) linked to the price of bitcoin, bringing crypto into the mainstream financial sector.

1710829485 858 Standard Chartered indicates that Bitcoin will reach 250000 next year

Standard Chartered’s report notes that money has flowed into these ETFs since their launch, causing the price of bitcoin to rise.

According to the report, a price of $250,000 would be likely next year “if ETF inflows continue to increase rapidly.” It added: “Bitcoin’s recent price trajectory felt like a moonshot.

‘The question we keep getting is: what now? $200,000 seems the right level for end-2025, but an overshoot to the $250,000 level seems feasible.

“For 2024, given the sharper than expected price increases to date, we now see potential for the bitcoin price to reach the $150,000 level by the end of the year, compared to our previous estimate of $100,000.”