Bitcoin could reach $50,000 this year and $120,000 by the end of 2024 according to a report by traditional financial institution Standard Chartered. The jump in price could encourage bitcoin ‘miners’ to hoard more supply.

Bitcoin Standard (Chartered) expects BTC to rise

Standard Chartered set a $100,000 end-2024 prediction for bitcoin back in April based on the view that “crypto winter” was over, but the bank’s top top FX analyst, Geoff Kendrick, said there was now 20% more “upside” to that call.

In a report on Monday, he said: “Increased miner profitability per BTC (bitcoin) mined means they can sell less while maintaining cash inflows, reducing net BTC supply and pushing BTC prices higher.”

The forecast has the potential to stimulate more holding activity from Bitcoin miners, encouraging network operators to increase their cryptocurrency holdings, thereby increasing Bitcoin’s illiquid supply ratio.

Institutional interest bubbles

Notably, Bitcoin has seen a surge in institutional interest in addition to the bank with over $800 billion in assets as a result of investment giant BlackRock’s application to US regulators for a Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on the popular cryptocurrency, which took place on June 15.

However the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has consistently rejected Spot Bitcoin ETF proposals, despite allowing riskier futures financial products. The regulator says its rejection mainly stems from concerns regarding market manipulation in the spot Bitcoin market. But ‘manipulation’ is not as much a concern as is financial surveillance.

Over the years, the SEC has confused market participants, and is accused of gaslighting the market across the board, besides acting in bad faith.

To address these supposed regulatory apprehensions, BlackRock is establishing an agreement with Nasdaq for the planned listing of its Bitcoin ETF. The agreement will involve “surveillance-sharing” of a Bitcoin trading platform.

Beyond that, institutional adoption continued with the launch of EDX Markets, a digital asset exchange catering to accredited investors. The exchange is backed by  prominent entities such as Fidelity, Charles Schwab, and Citadel Securities and features Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash trading pairs.

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