According to a research report published on Monday by Standard Chartered Bank, Bitcoin (BTC), the largest crypto by market capitalization, could reach $50,000 by the end of the year and $120,000 by the end of 2024.
The banking behemoth announced a BTC price recovery in the report published on July 10 and cited by media outlets such as Reuters. Standard Chartered predicts that the recent increase in the price of Bitcoin may encourage “miners” to stockpile more of the supply.
Standard Chartered’s BTC’s bold prediction
In April, the British multinational bank raised its bitcoin price prediction from $100,000. Standard Chartered stated at the time that Bitcoin had the potential to attain this price due to a number of factors, including the banking sector crisis.
In April, Standard Chartered projected that Bitcoin would be worth $100,000 by the end of 2024, based on the belief that the so-called “crypto winter” had ended. Geoff Kendrick, one of the bank’s top FX analysts, stated that there was now a 20% “upside” to that prediction.
Kendrick believes the reason for the BTC surge lies in supply dynamics. As miners devote more and more resources to network maintenance, they are selling less BTC, creating a supply-and-demand imbalance that will favor the investors.
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.
Standard Chartered report
According to the Standard Chartered report, increased miner profitability per bitcoin mined enables miners to sell less of their output while maintaining cash flows, thereby diminishing net bitcoin supply and driving up prices.
Kendrick estimates that miners have lately sold all of their newly mined coins. However, if the price reached $50,000, they would likely only sell 20-30%.
It is the equivalent of miners reducing the amount of bitcoins they sell per day to just 180-270 from 900 currently. Over a year, that would reduce miner selling from 328,500 to a range of 65,700-98,550 – a reduction in net BTC supply of roughly 250,000 bitcoins a year.
Standard Chartered report
Standard Chartered is already active in crypto; in April, its crypto custody platform Zodia raised $36 million in Series A funding.
What is the current Bitcoin market sentiment?
In 2022, the crypto sector lost trillions of dollars as central banks raised interest rates, and a series of crypto firms, such as the FTX exchange, collapsed. However, the collapse of a number of conventional banks this year has fueled the recovery.
Bitcoin’s price has increased by 80% since the beginning of the year, but its current level of just over $30,200 is still less than half of its November 2021 peak of $69,000.
During previous Bitcoin rallies, predictions of skyrocketing valuations were popular. According to a Citi analyst in November 2020, bitcoin might reach $318,000 by the end of 2022. It closed last year at $16,500, down around 65%.
A big bank anticipating a bright future for Bitcoin pricing is just one example of what one analyst recently named the “BlackRock effect.”
The decision by BlackRock to file for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, followed by several other prominent asset managers, has caused a shift in how the mainstream media views Bitcoin.
According to Arthur Hayes, former CEO of exchange BitMEX, the unrelenting trend of technical advancements around the world will propel BTC upwards. Hayes believes that artificial intelligence will choose Bitcoin as its currency of choice because of its unique characteristics.
According to CoinMarketCap, today’s live Bitcoin price stands at $30,285 with a 24-hour trading volume of $10,503,920,642. BTC is down 0.09% in the last 24 hours. According to CoinGecko, today’s global crypto market cap sits at $1.22 Trillion, a -0.13% change in the last 24 hours and a 25.99% change one year ago.
As of today, the market cap of Bitcoin (BTC) is at $589 Billion, representing a Bitcoin dominance of 48.23%. Meanwhile, Stablecoins’ market cap is at $128 Billion and has a 10.48% share of the total crypto market cap.
