Bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) will reach US$ 150 thousand after halving
Bitcoin is expected to see further price gains later this year even after a recent price pullback, according to Standard Chartered’s top crypto analyst. Geoffrey Kendrick, head of FX research, West, and digital asset research at Standard Chartered, said in a research note this week that he sees bitcoin rising to $150,000 per coin, and ether reaching $8,000 by the end from 2024 – doubling down on an optimistic forecast from the bank earlier this year. “We think the bad news is already priced in for BTC and ETH, and that positive structural factors will take over again as negative factors fade,” Kendrick said in the April 22 note. “Additionally, market positioning is now much cleaner than it was; $261 million of leveraged long positions were removed from BTC futures alone on April 13th – the largest daily sell-off 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 that were inflated by investors who used borrowed money to place larger bets on future swings in the cryptocurrency’s price. Bitcoin temporarily fell below $60,000 last week as traders reacted to news of an escalation of the military conflict between Iran and Israel. Although cryptocurrency proponents believe bitcoin is a hedge against periods of economic and geopolitical instability, bitcoin has behaved more like traditional risky assets like stocks in recent years as more institutional investors pile money into the asset. . In fact, bitcoin trading has shown that it can often react to bad news faster than stock traders, since the crypto market operates 24/7, while stocks and other conventional markets are traded only during the week. Still, 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 record well above the $73,797.68 price reached on March 14. shock from the bitcoin halving – which limits the supply of new bitcoin issues to 3,125 bitcoins, or about $208,360.31 on Wednesday, down from 6.25 bitcoins – as well as the arrival of new exchange-traded funds of bitcoin, which are sucking billions of dollars worth of the cryptocurrency off exchanges would support prices in late 2024. This even as the token faces a series of other bad news, including a stagnation of new bitcoin ETF flows in the United States; lowering expectations for approval of a US ether spot ETF; a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit against decentralized exchange Uniswap; higher US Treasury yields; and the escalation of tensions in the Middle East. “Yes, US BTC ETF inflows have stagnated, but we have now surpassed the halving, only half of the inflow is needed to cover net new supply, and the global ETF landscape (UK, HK) is improving. Additionally “Large long sell-offs over the last few weeks mean market positioning is much cleaner,” said Kendrick. “As a result, with the easing of tensions in the Middle East, I think it is time to re-engage in long-term operations.”