Bitcoin could hit $250,000 next year, according to Standard Chartered.
In a report published yesterday, the bank, one of the world’s biggest, said the digital currency was on course to reach $150,000 by the end of this year.
Standard Chartered’s analysts Geoff Kendrick and Suki Cooper, who are based in London and New York respectively, said it could then hit $250,000 ‘at some point in 2025’ before ending the year at $200,000.
The report comes days after bitcoin hit a record high of $73,803 before retreating. It was last night trading at around $68,000.
A surge to $250,000 would be welcomed by crypto enthusiasts as well as the 5m or so British investors who own digital coins.
![Moonshot: Standard Chartered, one of the world's biggest banks, said Bitcoin was on course to reach $150,000 by the end of this year](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/18/21/82614249-13211153-image-a-1_1710796287156.jpg)
Moonshot: Standard Chartered, one of the world’s biggest banks, said Bitcoin was on course to reach $150,000 by the end of this year
However, it is far from guaranteed, and regulators continue to warn that anyone who buys a cryptocurrency such as bitcoin could lose everything.
Bank of America chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett last week warned that markets are showing ‘characteristics of a bubble’.
Bitcoin hit a previous peak of close to $69,000 in late 2021 but was had fallen below $16,000 a year later.
It has rallied strongly in recent months, buoyed by hopes that central banks will start cutting interest rates around the world in the coming months as well as a significant regulatory breakthrough in the US.
In January, US watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission, approved 11 so-called ‘exchange traded funds’ (ETFs) linked to the price of bitcoin, bringing crypto into mainstream finance.
![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/18/21/82614255-13211153-image-a-4_1710796333129.jpg)
The report by Standard Chartered noted that money has flowed into these ETFs since they were launched, boosting the price of bitcoin.
The report said a price of $250,000 was likely next year ‘if ETF inflows continue apace’. It added: ‘Bitcoin’s recent price trajectory has felt like a moonshot.
‘The question we keep getting asked is, what now? $200,000 looks like the correct level for end-2025 but an overshoot to the $250,000 level seems feasible.
‘For 2024, given the sharper-than-expected price gains year-to-date, we now see potential for the bitcoin price to reach the $150,000 level by year-end, up from our previous estimate of $100,000.’