Bitcoin has dominated the crypto market since the inception of the industry. Owing to its limited utility, Standard Chartered bank provided a surprising Bitcoin price prediction.
Bitcoin (BTC) has set the trend of cryptocurrencies for the longest time. A bullish BTC translated to a bullish market, and vice versa, with few outliers like Luna Classic.
Standard Chartered is an international bank with its headquarters in the United Kingdom, offering consumer, treasury, corporate, and banking services.
Standard Chartered Bitcoin price prediction
Eric Robertsen, the bank’s global head of research, shared the prediction sentiment.
A further Bitcoin plunge of about 70% to $5,000 next year is among the “surprise” scenarios that markets may be “under-pricing”
Eric Robertsen, Standard Chartered bank global head of research
A massive drop in BTC’s price would reverberate throughout the industry.
A quick perusal of the proof of reserves shared by centralized exchanges reveals substantial BTC holdings. Bitfinex, for instance, holds 45.34% of its reserves in BTC, while KuCoin holds 17%. A BTC crash of such magnitude would result in an industry-wide collapse similar to that of FTX, where the exchanges could not fulfill their customer deposits.
Eric added that the demand would switch from BTC to gold resulting in a 30% rally. The rapid drop in value would result from interest-rate hikes from struggling economies, future market collapses, and dwindling investor confidence in crypto.
Below is a Bloomberg chart showing how Bitcoin has compared to gold over time, indicating BTCs value is depreciating against gold.
Robertsen added that the dynamics in 2023 would see gold surge to $2,250 an ounce. Nicholas Frappell, from ABC refinery, shared similar sentiments that gold would benefit from the shortcomings of the crypto industry.
What next for Bitcoin?
Analysts provide varying BTC forecasts, with few as hard-hitting as Standard Chartered bank. Presumably, BTC had its best days in 2021 and is gradually losing its glamour. The coin is trading 75% below its all-time high of $68,789.63 set in November 2021.
The sad reality of the state of the crypto industry raises questions about what the future holds. Proponents argue that the future of WEB3 is blockchain which has numerous applications outside crypto. If that holds water, Bitcoin can lose its position on top of the market, allowing more utility-centric coins like Ethereum to steer the market.
The crash of FTX and its sister companies was an eye-opener that firms are now coming to reality by factoring in their inherent risk. Decentralized finance (DeFi) is also at risk. In the most recent occurrence, the hackers stole trillions of aBNBc tokens from the ANKR blockchain protocol.
On-chain stats indicate increasing withdrawals of BTC from exchanges as people seek a safer haven for their coins. Watcher.Guru estimates $1.8 billion (109,133 BTC) withdrawn from cryptocurrency exchanges in the last 30 days.
However, Pantera Capital, the world’s largest crypto hedge fund, provided a different Bitcoin price prediction back in November. The firm provided a more analytical prediction, factoring in the supply dynamics of BTC. They suggested that BTC trade at $36,000 before the next halving event and rise to $149,000 in 2024.
At press time, Bitcoin has held steady at $17,240, up by 1.66% in 24 hours. The cryptocurrency market shares a similar performance at +1.67% in 24 hours with a market capitalization of $865.22 billion.
Also, read Bitcoin price prediction 2023 – 2031.
