Bitcoin Could Rise to $120K by End-2024: Standard Chartered

Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, could rise to $50,000 by the end of this year and up to $120,000 by end-2024, Standard Chartered Bank said in a research report on Monday.

The British multinational bank increased its bitcoin price forecast from the $100,000 predicted in April. Standard Chartered said at the time that bitcoin had the potential to reach that level because of several factors, one of them being the banking-sector crisis.

"We now think this estimate is too conservative, and we therefore see upside to our end-2024 target," the report said.

Bitcoin has climbed 80% since the start of the year and is currently trading around $30,100.

The report cites increased bitcoin miner profitability as one of the factors that will drive the price this time.

“The rationale here is that as well as maintaining the bitcoin ledger, miners play a key role in determining net supply of newly mined BTC,” wrote Geoff Kendrick, head of FX and digital assets research.

Increased miner profitability per bitcoin mined means miners can sell less of their output while maintaining cash inflows, reducing net bitcoin supply and thus pushing the prices higher, according to the report.