The Blubber

A Standard Chartered analyst who previously forecasted Bitcoin would reach $120,000 by Q2 now believes that projection may have underestimated the cryptocurrency’s potential.

“I apologize—my $120K Q2 target might actually be too conservative,” Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank’s head of digital assets, said in a wry note sent to clients on Thursday.

Just last month, Kendrick predicted Bitcoin would hit a new record high of around $120,000 in the second quarter of 2025. That outlook was based on two main drivers: a strategic shift away from U.S.-based assets and growing accumulation by large-scale investors, often referred to as “whales.”

“At the time, we anticipated these favorable conditions would drive Bitcoin to new all-time highs around $120K by Q2,” Kendrick had written. “From there, we saw further upside through the summer, with BTC possibly reaching our year-end target of $200,000.”

But as of Thursday, Kendrick signaled that even $120,000 may now be a conservative estimate.

“The narrative surrounding Bitcoin has shifted once again,” he said. “It was initially seen as correlated with risk assets, then as a strategic hedge away from U.S. holdings. Now, it’s all about capital flows—and they’re coming from multiple directions.”

His revised tone comes amid another surge in Bitcoin’s price, which has once again climbed above the $100,000 mark. As of the latest data from Coin Metrics, the cryptocurrency was up 4.5%, trading at $100,511.22.

In recent years, analysts have noted that Bitcoin’s trading behavior has increasingly mirrored that of high-risk assets, particularly U.S. tech stocks. This correlation is often attributed to rising levels of institutional investment in Bitcoin, which expose it to similar market forces affecting the broader equity space.