The world’s leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, could surge to a new record high next year, a top analyst at Standard Chartered predicted this week in a note seen by Reuters.
According to Geoff Kendrick, the cryptocurrency could climb to $50,000 this year and potentially even further as the jump in price would encourage Bitcoin miners to hoard a larger portion of supply. This would create a supply and demand imbalance, fueling a further rise.
“Increased miner profitability per BTC mined means they can sell less while maintaining cash inflows, reducing net BTC supply and pushing BTC prices higher,” Kendrick was cited as saying.
UK banking giant Standard Chartered forecast earlier this year that Bitcoin would jump to $100,000 in 2024, stating that the so-called “crypto winter” was over thanks to stress in the traditional banking sector.
Kendrick, however, said there was now 20% “upside” to that call, forecasting the token to hit $120,000 by the end of next year, nearly doubling the all-time high of around $69,000 it reached in 2021.
After the stock market shock that followed the US banking crisis earlier this year, many experts predicted that Bitcoin was likely to gain increasing appeal for investors. The price of the token has been growing steadily and hit a one-year high in June. It is up more than 82% so far this year.
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