Standard Chartered: The dominant narrative in Bitcoin has changed

Geoffrey Kendrick, an analyst at the British bank Standard Chartered who predicts that Bitcoin could reach $120,000 in the second quarter, now says that this price forecast may be much too low. In his latest assessment shared with clients, Kendrick made a humorous remark saying, "I apologize for my $120,000 second quarter target now seeming likely to be very low."

Kendrick, who is at the head of the bank's digital assets unit, attributed the $120,000 price prediction he announced last month to two reasons. The analyst stated that the first is a strategic asset allocation away from US assets, and the second is that large investors are accumulating more Bitcoin. He further wrote, "We expect these supportive factors to drive BTC to $120,000 in the second quarter. We foresee the upward trend continuing throughout the summer and anticipate a movement towards our year-end prediction of $200,000."

"The story of the raid has changed once again"

Now, according to Kendrick, the dominant narrative for Bitcoin has changed once again. Kendrick stated, "Previously, the story was about correlation with risky assets. Today, it has become a strategic positioning tool for those planning to exit U.S. assets. Now, the issue is entirely about fund flows, and furthermore, these flows are coming from many different channels."

The analyst pointed out that there has been over $5 billion in fund inflows into Bitcoin spot ETFs in the U.S. in the last three weeks and emphasized that more institutional money is flowing into the market. In this context, he cited the increase in Bitcoin purchases by Strategy, the investment of the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund in BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF, and the purchase of Strategy shares by the Swiss Central Bank as examples.

Published: May 10, 2025 23:28