Standard Chartered's Bold Predictions: Bitcoin Soars to $150K, Ethereum to $8K

Standard Chartered has revised its year-end forecast for Bitcoin (BTC) to $150,000, a 50% increase from its previous projection of $100,000. Additionally, the bank predicts that BTC will hit a peak of $250,000 during 2025 before stabilising around $200,000. This upward revision is based on an analysis comparing the impact of gold ETFs on the gold market to the potential impact of Bitcoin ETFs on the cryptocurrency market, with the introduction of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. earlier in the year serving as a reference point. The bank suggests that if ETF inflows reach an estimated midpoint of $75 billion and if reserve managers begin to invest in BTC, there's a strong possibility of BTC surpassing the $250,000 mark at some point in 2025. Furthermore, Standard Chartered anticipates that an Ethereum (ETH) ETF could be approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 23, potentially resulting in inflows of up to $45 billion within the first year and pushing ETH prices to around $8,000 by the end of 2024. The bank also predicts a rise in the ETH-to-BTC price ratio, with ETH potentially reaching $14,000 by the end of 2025, given BTC's estimated price of $200,000 by that time.