On Monday, Standard Chartered released a new report declaring the crypto-winter is over, and the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has the potential to skyrocket to $100,000 per token by next year.
The UK banking giant’s bullish report went on to declare that the recent banking sector crisis has in part, helped “re-establish Bitcoin’s use as a decentralized scarce digital asset.”
In the report, Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick wrote, “The current stress in the traditional banking sector is highly conducive to BTC outperformance.”
He went on, “Given these advantages, we think BTC’s share of total digital assets market cap could move into the 50-60% range in the next few months (from around 45% currently). While sources of uncertainty remain, we think the pathway to the USD 100,000 level is becoming clearer.”
Some analysts have made the case that after the recent upheaval in the banking sector, many investors may increasingly begin to see Bitcoin’s appeal as a “safe haven” in which to store assets.
So far this year, the price of Bitcoin has risen by 65%, to over $30,000 in April – the first time it has seen that level in ten months. The gains came on the heels of a 65% drop in 2022, when almost $1.4 trillion was evaporated from the crypto-market as a wave of bankruptcies and scandals plagued the sector. In addition, following the collapse of major crypto exchange FTX and blockchain payment platform Terra, regulators have increasingly begun to scrutinize the sector.
The collapse of the crypto market sparked whispers of a crypto-winter, similar to the great crypto crash of 2018, when after an unprecedented boom, Bitcoin lost 80% of its net worth, falling to a low of $3,100. It was not until December of 2020 that it reached a new high. The great crypto crash of 2018 exceeded even the Dot-com bubble’s bursting in March of 2000, when it lost 78%.
Economists have been split over the future of cryptocurrencies. One Citi analyst predicted in November of 2020 that by the end of 2022, Bitcoin might climb as high as $318,000. Meanwhile crypto-skeptic Peter Schiff has said that cryptocurrencies hold no value, and investors should sell all of their’s before the sector collapses and everything is worthless.
Bitcoin was down 0.1% on Tuesday, trading at $27,423.
