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Standard Chartered’s bullish crypto analyst still sees bitcoin’s price hitting $500,000 during Donald Trump’s presidency — even after a selloff that sank the world’s largest digital currency to a three-month low.
Geoffrey Kendrick, who heads up digital assets research at Standard Chartered, told CNBC he believes bitcoin will hit the $200,000 mark this yr before climbing even further in the approaching years.
“Inside the crypto ecosystem, what we want are traditional financial players, like Standard Chartered, like BlackRock and others which have the ETFs now to essentially step in,” Kendrick said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” Thursday.
“Because the industry becomes more institutionalized, it ought to be safer,” Kendrick said, adding that this could end in fewer negative headlines — resembling the recent $1.5 billion hack on cryptocurrency exchange Bybit last week.
This increase in crypto adoption by institutions, coupled with some “regulatory clarity” within the U.S., should result in less volatility over time, he added.
“That ought to add to that medium term, top-side potential, which for me is bitcoin as much as $200,000 this yr, and $500,000 before Trump leaves office,” Kendrick told CNBC.
Kendrick said the catalyst crucial for big financial institutions to realize confidence to take a position in bitcoin and other crypto assets is a stabilization in prices and increased regulatory clarity.
Bitcoin earlier this week sank to a three-month low below $90,000 amid declines in global equity markets. As of Thursday, the token was trading at $86,418. Which means it’s down about 20% from an all-time high of $108,786, which the coin peaked at in January, in accordance with CoinGecko data.
Standard Chartered’s Kendrick said digital currencies have dropped more broadly as a result of uncertainty around tariffs and resolutions to major wars resembling Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza.
“Risk assets don’t love uncertainty, and so that is what we have seen. We have seen tech stocks within the U.S. coming lower,” Kendrick said, adding that the breach of Bybit has also contributed to negative sentiment surrounding crypto more broadly.
He expects the outlook for crypto will improve later within the yr as traders await key regulatory developments within the industry, resembling recent rules around stablecoins and anti-money laundering.
“That ought to further legitimize, so you will see more U.S. banks involved. You will see larger institutions within the U.S. proceed to push through,” Kendrick said.
Kendrick was one in all the many market analysts who predicted a doubling in bitcoin’s price this yr to $200,000. Bitcoin broke the highly anticipated $100,000 mark in December following Trump’s election to the U.S. presidency.
Crypto bulls view Trump positively given his support for digital currencies. In January, Trump signed an executive order promoting the advancement of cryptocurrencies within the U.S. and developing a national digital asset stockpile.
Crypto investors, firms and executives accounted for nearly half of corporate donations within the 2024 election cycle, with some contributing tens of thousands and thousands of dollars to Trump’s campaign.
