Bitcoin tipped to hit $250,000 next year

BITCOIN could hit $250,000 next year, according to Standard Chartered.

In a report published yesterday, the bank, one of the world’s biggest, said the digital currency was on course to reach $150,000 by the end of this year.

Standard Chartered’s analysts Geoff Kendrick and Suki Cooper, who are based in London and New York respectively, said it could then hit $250,000 ‘at some point in 2025’ before ending the year at $200,000.

The report comes days after bitcoin hit a record high of $73,803 before retreating. It was last night trading at around $68,000.

A surge to $250,000 would be welcomed by crypto enthusiasts as well as the 5m or so British investors who own digital coins.

However, it is far from guaranteed, and regulators continue to warn that anyone who buys a cryptocurrency such as bitcoin could lose everything.

Bank of America chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett last week warned that markets are showing ‘characteristics of a bubble’.

Bitcoin hit a previous peak of close to $69,000 in late 2021 but was had fallen below $16,000 a year later. It has rallied strongly in recent months, buoyed by hopes that central banks will start cutting interest rates around the world in the coming months as well as a significant regulatory breakthrough in the US.

In January, US watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission, approved 11 so- called ‘exchange traded funds’ (ETFs) linked to the price of bitcoin, bringing crypto into mainstream finance.

The report by Standard Chartered noted that money has flowed into these ETFs since they were launched, boosting the price of bitcoin.

The report said a price of $250,000 was likely next year ‘if ETF inflows continue apace’. It added: ‘Bitcoin’s recent price trajectory has felt like a moonshot.

‘The question we keep getting asked is, what now? $200,000 looks like the correct level for end-2025 but an overshoot to the $250,000 level seems feasible.

‘ For 2024, given the sharper- thanexpected price gains year-to-date, we now see potential for the bitcoin price to reach the $150,000 level by year-end, up from our previous estimate of $100,000.’