Standard Chartered Predicts Bitcoin Will Soon Reach a New All-Time High

The bank believes the $120,000 target in Q2 is becoming increasingly realistic.

Standard Chartered is sticking to its bullish Bitcoin (BTC) price prediction for Q2 despite the recent legal challenges faced by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In a conversation with BeInCrypto, Geoff Kendrick, Head of Digital Asset Research at Standard Chartered, discussed several key factors that could propel Bitcoin to a new all-time high in the second quarter.

His predictions come amid a pending lawsuit against the SEC by the Decoding Law founder Tom Lee. Lee claims the agency’s actions are hindering the approval of Bitcoin ETFs.

Moreover, an appeals court ruled against the SEC in its bid to overturn a lower court ruling that ordered the agency to reconsider its 2021 decision to reject an ETF application.

Despite these developments, Kendrick said several indicators point to a bullish scenario for Bitcoin in the coming months.

Capital Flows Are Returning Strongly to Bitcoin ETFs

According to Glassnode data, ETF outflows had largely disappeared by mid-March as the cryptocurrency markets experienced a downturn.

However, over the past two weeks, there has been a return of strong outflows, particularly from the U.S.

At the same time, Bitcoin experienced a rebound from lows of $84,000 to highs of $99,000.

“Bitcoin’s price appreciation is now all about flows, and flows are coming in many forms, as the spot ETFs in the US have seen $5.3 billion of inflows over the past 3 weeks. On my price-adjusted calculation, this has seen the net real flow increase by $1.2 billion over this period, so $4 billion of the flows are “notional” and may relate to futures positions or other instruments used to hedge the ETFs' exposures, ” Kendrick said.

According to his calculations, the total capital flows into the U.S. Bitcoin ETFs since the beginning of the year now stand at around $17 billion.

Strategy’s Investment in Bitcoin Continues

Another key factor that Kendrick highlighted is Strategy’s (formerly MicroStrategy) ongoing accumulation of Bitcoin.

Data from BitcoinTreasuries shows that the company has been steadily accumulating the flagship cryptocurrency since late 2024.

With the recent price recovery, Strategy’s total holdings have reached a record value of over $53.8 billion.

“They now hold 555,450 Bitcoins, which is 2.6% of all Bitcoins that will ever exist. Their new plan to raise an additional $84 billion to buy more Bitcoin would add another 840,000 Bitcoins. At a $100,000 price, this would increase their holdings to more than 6% of all Bitcoins that will ever exist and take their total to $84 billion of Bitcoin and related instruments, ” Kendrick explained.

According to the Standard Chartered analyst, Strategy’s actions are driven by a belief that Bitcoin's price will continue to rise.

Kendrick said that the upcoming 13F filings from ETFs and Strategy will provide further insights into their investment activities during the last quarter of 2024.

Finally, he noted that major institutions are becoming increasingly involved in Bitcoin.

For instance, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund had a small 4,700 Bitcoin-equivalent position in IBIT at the end of December.

Kendrick expects this holding to have increased, and he anticipates that other long-term buyers will join in too.

“I would expect that to have increased, and other long-term buyers to have joined in too. Notably, the Swiss National Bank recently began buying MicroStrategy, alongside the Norges Pension Fund. It is also worth noting that the Norges Pension Fund had a small holding in IBIT at the end of December, which may have been liquidated in March to fund the purchase of MicroStrategy shares,” he said.

According to Kendrick, these trends suggest that major institutions are gradually integrating Bitcoin into their traditional portfolios.

At the same time, local governments in the U.S. are also taking steps to invest in Bitcoin. A recent BeInCrypto report highlighted that states like Arizona, New Hampshire, Texas, and Oregon are making significant progress on legislation to create strategic Bitcoin reserves.

“New Hampshire recently became the first US state to pass a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill, and I expect other states to follow suit. This legislation would mandate that a portion of state funds be invested in Bitcoin to serve as a long-term store of value and hedge against inflation.

Given all these factors, I apologize if my $120,000 Q2 target may be too low,” he concluded.