Standard Chartered is now walking back its own Bitcoin prediction, because reality is catching up faster than it expected.
On Thursday, Geoffrey Kendrick, head of crypto at the bank, told clients through email that his earlier $120,000 price target for the second quarter might not be high enough. “I apologise that my USD120k Q2 target may be too low,” Geoffrey said.
This isn’t coming from nowhere. In April, Geoffrey predicted that Bitcoin would push past its old record and hit $120,000 before the end of June. He based that on two major drivers: big investors pulling out of US assets, and more accumulation by so-called whales—wallets holding massive amounts of the coin.
“We expect these supportive factors to push BTC to a fresh all-time high around USD 120,000 in Q2,” Geoffrey said in the note. He said that if the momentum holds through summer, we could be staring at $200,000 before 2025 wraps.
Inflows are driving the Bitcoin rally, not hype
But this week, Geoffrey changed his tone. He said the $120K forecast “looks very achievable” and might already be outdated. He explained that the entire narrative around Bitcoin has changed.
First, it was about correlations with riskier assets like tech stocks. Then, it became a way for investors to avoid US exposure. “It is now all about flows,” Geoffrey said. “And flows are coming in many forms.”
The numbers back him up. On Thursday, Bitcoin climbed over 3% to hit $99,293.54, almost touching $100,000, with a high of $99,897 earlier in the day, according to Coin Metrics. That rally isn’t being driven by tweets or FOMO. It’s being driven by money.
Geoffrey pointed out that US spot Bitcoin ETFs have pulled in $5.3 billion in the last three weeks. That’s not loose change. Big players are jumping in. He mentioned Strategy, which keeps stacking more Bitcoin onto its balance sheet.
The Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund now holds shares of BlackRock’s IBIT ETF. Even the Swiss National Bank is in, buying up Strategy stock. That company has basically become a Bitcoin proxy at this point.
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