By
Godfrey Benjamin
May 10th, 2024
Banking giant Standard Chartered expects the Bitcoin bull run to continue further with the BTC price to rally to $50,000 by the end of the year.
After hitting its 2023 high at $31,000 last week, the world’s largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) has been facing some selling pressure over the last week and is currently trading close to $30,000 levels. However, going ahead, market players continue to remain bullish on Bitcoin. Banking giant Standard Chartered published a report on Monday, July 10, that notes that the BTC price could touch $50,000 by the end of the year and $120,000 by the end of 2024.
Standard Chartered’s Predictions on Bitcoin
The report also notes that the predicted jump in the Bitcoin price could also encourage miners to hoard more cash. Bitcoin miners have been on a strong footing this year after a brutal crypto winter of 2022. As the Bitcoin hash rate continues to climb, the Bitcoin miner revenue has also grown accordingly. Also, with the launch of Bitcoin ordinals, the miners filled their kitty in 2023.
Also, the Bitcoin blockchain shall be undergoing the most-awaited halving event in mid-2024 which will cut the miner rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. This creates supply shock thereby driving prices higher. On the other hand, Bitcoin miners will also continue to accumulate more and more BTC going ahead.
In April, Standard Chartered predicted a $100,000 forecast for Bitcoin by the end of 2024, indicating the end of the “crypto winter”, wrote Reuters. However, Geoff Kendrick, one of the bank’s leading FX analysts, now believes there is a potential 20% upside to that prediction.
“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,” Kendrick said in a report.
Bitcoin Whales Are Buying
On-chain data shows that Bitcoin whales along with the sharks have been accumulating at every stage. Over the last three weeks, Bitcoin shark and whale addresses have accumulated a total of 71,000 Bitcoins. Santiment reported:
“Bitcoin’s sharks and whales aren’t showing any signs of slowing down, even with prices beginning to get “boring” in this $30k to $31k range. Since June 17th, 10 to 10k $BTC addresses have accumulated 71k more coins, equating to $2.15 billion.”
On the downside, Bitcoin has strong support. If the price continues to decline, it is expected to find strong support levels around $29,300 and $28,800. A significant support level is also anticipated at $25,000, which aligns with the 200 MA and the upward trendline that began earlier this year.
Also, macro factors will play a key role in going ahead. The economic outlook remains highly uncertain. In the US, there are signs that the period of lower inflation may come to an end, while inflation remains persistent globally, especially in European countries and particularly in the UK.