Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, could rise to $50,000 by the end of this year and as much as $120,000 by the end of 2024, Standard Chartered said in a research report on Monday.
The British multinational bank has increased its Bitcoin price forecast from the $100,000 expected in April. Standard Chartered said at the time that bitcoin has the potential to reach this level due to several factors, one of which is the crisis in the banking sector.
“We now believe this estimate is very conservative, and therefore we see an increase in our target for the end of 2024,” the report said.
Bitcoin is up 80% since the beginning of the year and is currently trading around $30,100.
The report points to the increase in bitcoin miner profitability as one of the factors that will drive the price this time around.
“The rationale here is that in addition to maintaining the Bitcoin ledger, miners play a major role in determining the net supply of newly mined BTC,” wrote Jeff Kendrick, head of FX and Digital Assets Research.
Increasing miner profitability per bitcoin mined means miners can sell less of their output while maintaining cash inflows, reducing the net supply of bitcoin and thus driving prices higher, according to the report.
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