Standard Chartered: BTC Could Hit $200K in 2025 With Spot Bitcoin ETF Approval

Standard Chartered has predicted that the price of bitcoin could rise to $200,000 next year with the approval of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The bank’s analysts described: “We see this as a watershed moment for normalizing bitcoin participation by institutional money, and we expect approval to drive significant inflows and price upside for bitcoin.”

Standard Chartered’s $200K Bitcoin Prediction

Standard Chartered’s Global Research published a note on digital assets Monday explaining bitcoin’s “price upside” from the approval of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which many expect to happen on Wednesday.

The note, written by the bank’s head of crypto research, Geoff Kendrick, and Suki Cooper, a precious metal analyst at Standard Chartered Bank NY Branch, explains:

ETF approval is a key driver of BTC price upside … We see this as a watershed moment for normalising bitcoin partipation by institutional money, and we expect approval to drive significant inflows and price upside for BTC.

“To gauge how big a driver this might become, we use the introduction of the first U.S.-based gold ETP (in November 2004) as a good point of comparison. The price of gold rose 4.3x in the seven to eight years it took for gold ETP [exchange-traded product] holdings to mature after the first ETP was introduced,” the analysts detailed.

The Standard Chartered analysts continued:

We expect bitcoin to enjoy price gains of a similar magnitude as a result of U.S. spot ETF approval, but we see these gains materialising over a shorter (one- to two-year) period, given our view that the BTC ETF market will develop more quickly.

“This is consistent with our end-2024 view of bitcoin at the USD 100,000 level. If ETF-related inflows materialise as we expect, we think an end-2025 level closer to USD 200,000 is possible. This assumes that between 437,000 and 1.32mn new bitcoins will be held in spot U.S. ETFs by end-2024. In USD terms, this should be roughly USD 50-100bn,” they further described.

In April last year, Standard Chartered said crypto winter has ended. In November, the bank noted that “crypto spring has sprung,” emphasizing that BTC could reach $100K sooner than previously predicted.

Do you think bitcoin’s price will hit $200K in 2025 as predicted by Standard Chartered? Let us know in the comments section below.