Standard Chartered, Matrixport foresee Bitcoin hitting $120k next year

International bank Standard Chartered predicted that Bitcoin’s (BTC) price could end the year as high as $50,000 and reach $120,000 by next year, according to a July 10 Reuters report.

Standard’s Chartered prediction is congruent with Matrixport, a crypto financial services platform that predicted BTC’s price to reach $125,000 by 2024 in a report shared with CryptoSlate on July 6.

Markus Thielen, the head of research and strategy at Matrixport, said:

“If history is any guide, then there is now a 100% probability that by the end of 2024, Bitcoin will experience another massive bull market with a price target of $125,000 (+310%).”

Standard Chartered highlights miners’ role

Standard Chartered noted the critical role BTC miners could play in this potential upward price movement.

According to Geoff Kendrick, one of the bank’s FX analysts, BTC’s price could increase because miners’ profitability has risen, and they are not pressured to sell. Kendrick reportedly 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.”

Last year, BTC miners were one of the cohorts badly affected by the record-low market situation that led to the capitulation of several crypto firms, including FTX and others.

However, BTC miners appear to have bucked the trend this year, as many are in better financial health. The COO at Luxor Technologies, Ethan Vera, estimated that miners’ debt has reduced to around $4.5 billion to $6 billion from the $8 billion recorded in 2022.

Most miners who sold their BTC this year aimed to secure profits by taking advantage of the recent price surge. According to CryptoSlate’s data, BTC has grown by over 70% on the year-to-date metric.

Institutional interest in BTC soars

Besides miners, traditional financial institutions could also play an essential role in BTC’s price movement.

In June, the industry witnessed a flurry of spot BTC ETF applications from legacy institutions triggered by BlackRock’s application. Further, crypto ETPs have recorded three consecutive weeks of inflows, as per CoinShares

Since then, positive market sentiments as returned to the market, with the flagship digital asset rising to a yearly high of $31,500 before retracing to its current levels of $30,279 at the time of writing.

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