By Landon Manning
Standard Chartered, one of the largest banks in the United Kingdom, has made ripples in the financial world by predicting that the bitcoin price could reach $50,000 by the end of the year, and $120,000 by the end of 2024.
Standard Chartered serves a multinational base of individual and corporate clients from its headquarters in London and although it does not conduct retail banking in the U.K., its multibillion dollar operations in Asia, Africa and the Middle East make it one of the most influential financial firms in the world.
And this prominent role in the global financial system is what makes it particularly interesting that Standard Chartered made such a bullish prediction for bitcoin earlier this month. Citing recent market activity and subsequent impacts on miners, a report published by the bank suggested that bitcoin is now set for a meteoric rise, bringing its price up to $120,000 by the end of next year.
Standard Chartered’s optimistic outlook is being bolstered by Bitcoin’s hash rate, the amount of computing power being applied to secure the network by miners and an indicator of the network’s strength, which recently hit an all-time high. This latest prediction upped the bank’s previous call that the bitcoin price would reach $100,000 in 2024, an increase motivated by a more optimistic outlook for miner profitability.
“Increased miner profitability per BTC (bitcoin) mined means they can sell less while maintaining cash inflows, reducing net BTC supply and pushing BTC prices higher,” explained Standard Chartered FX analyst Geoff Kendrick.
The bitcoin price has already risen in value by some 80% since the beginning of 2023. If it jumps up to $50,000 as expected by the bank, Kendrick added that “Over a year, that would reduce miner selling from 328,500 to a range of 65,700 to 98,550 — a reduction in net BTC supply of roughly 250,000 bitcoins a year.”
The mining ecosystem is not the only reason to be bullish on bitcoin, however. The strong possibility of an approved spot Bitcoin ETF on the horizon could usher in a new wave of institutional investors.
It might seem overly optimistic to claim that bitcoin’s price will end up quadrupling over the next year and a half, even with its historic volatility. But there are clear reasons why such a large bank has such confidence in Bitcoin. Hard data shows that the mining industry is thawing from “crypto winter” to become stronger than ever, regulatory approval years in the making appears imminent and BTC has once again emerged from a cycle low with strong momentum.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
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