Geoffrey Kendrick of Standard Chartered admits he may have underestimated bitcoin’s potential, stating his target of $120,000 by Q2 2025 might be “too low.” He notes a significant shift in investment strategies, with institutional inflows driving interest. Bitcoin is nearing $100,000 again, reflecting increased market confidence and large investments from entities such as MicroStrategy and sovereign wealth funds.
Standard Chartered’s Analyst Reassesses Bitcoin Valuation
Geoffrey Kendrick, a Standard Chartered analyst, has recently made headlines after admitting that his previous prediction of bitcoin reaching $120,000 by the second quarter of 2025 may actually be too conservative. In a light-hearted email to clients, Kendrick proactively apologised for what he deemed an underestimated target, stating, “I apologise that my USD120k Q2 target may be too low.”
Last month, Kendrick outlined his rationale for the $120,000 prediction. He suggested a number of drivers might propel bitcoin’s price, namely a significant shift in asset allocation away from US investments and a build-up of holdings by large investors—also known as “whales.” He firmly believed these dynamics would lead bitcoin to a new all-time high. “We expect these supportive factors to push BTC to a fresh all-time high around USD 120,000 in Q2,” Kendrick remarked, also expressing confidence about year-end figures climbing to $200,000.
Fast forward to Thursday, Kendrick noted that his $120,000 target is now looking increasingly achievable, with the possibility that it might even prove conservative. “The dominant story for Bitcoin has changed again,” he remarked, highlighting that the focus has shifted from merely correlating with risk assets to welcoming fresh capital flows into the market.
These comments arrived on a day when bitcoin approached the psychological threshold of $100,000 once more. Coin Metrics reported that the cryptocurrency traded up by over 3% to reach $99,293.54, having briefly peaked at $99,897.00 earlier in the day.
In recent years, parallels have been drawn between bitcoin and traditional risk assets like US tech stocks. This trend, wherein institutional capital increasingly flows into bitcoin, implies that it is more susceptible to the fluctuations seen in equity markets.
Kendrick, who maintains a bullish outlook on bitcoin, pointed out that US spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have witnessed a remarkable influx of $5.3 billion over the past three weeks, indicating robust institutional interest. He cited several prominent investors, including software giant MicroStrategy, which has reportedly expanded its bitcoin purchases, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund’s investment in BlackRock’s IBIT bitcoin ETF, and even the Swiss National Bank’s acquisition of shares in MicroStrategy as evidence of this trend.
MicroStrategy has become widely regarded as a proxy for bitcoin due to its heavy investments in the cryptocurrency. This reputation only seems to reinforce the growing connection between institutional investors and bitcoin as an asset class.
