Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on December 10, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
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Standard Chartered halves its bitcoin price forecasts for 2025 and 2026, citing a market 'cold breeze'. Demand shifts towards ETFs, delaying $500,000 target to 2030.
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ONE BITCOIN BULL HAS CUT THEIR FORECAST AS "COLD BREEZE" BLOWS
Standard Chartered, one of the staunchest bitcoin advocates, has cut its price forecasts for 2025 and 2026 in half, underscoring the severity of the selloff in crypto markets.
Geoff Kendrick, the global head of digital assets research at the bank, said on Tuesday he now expects bitcoin prices around $100,000 by the end of 2025 and $150,000 by the end of next year, both half of his previous estimates.
The rethink reflects a shift in expected demand, with future buying likely to be driven mainly by exchange-traded funds rather than by companies adding bitcoin to their balance sheets, he said. Many bitcoin holding companies now trade at a discount to the value of their crypto assets.
Kendrick still believes bitcoin can reach $500,000, but only by 2030, marking a two‑year delay from his earlier call.
The recalibration from one of the biggest bitcoin bulls underlines the depth of the price slide and the sharp deterioration in sentiment, which could raise further questions about the crypto industry.
Kendrick, however, said his sense was this was "not a crypto winter, just a cold breeze."
(Niket Nishant)
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Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that allows people to send or receive money over the internet without the need for a central authority or intermediary.
A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security and operates on a technology called blockchain, which ensures transparency and security.
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are investment funds that are traded on stock exchanges, similar to stocks. They typically hold a collection of assets, such as stocks or bonds.
Market sentiment refers to the overall attitude of investors toward a particular security or financial market, which can influence their buying and selling decisions.
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