After a torrid 2022 during which Bitcoin lost nearly 65 percent of its market value, the cryptocurrency is looking up, with analysts predicting a price surge in the coming months.
According to Standard Chartered, bitcoin can potentially reach $50,000 this year and $120,000 by the end of 2024.
"Increased miner profitability per BTC (bitcoin) mined means they can sell less while maintaining cash inflows, reducing net BTC supply and pushing BTC prices higher," StanChart's top FX analyst Geoff Kendrick said, according to Reuters.
Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, had plunged below $20,000 at the start of 2023, following a bloodbath that began in the previous year in the aftermath of events like the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and troubles at Coinbase.
However, factors like the banking crisis in the US following the collapse of lenders like Silicon Valley Bank, weakening of the dollar index and easing of inflation have kicked new life into the struggling crypto giant.
Earlier in May as well, Standard Chartered had said bitcoin could reach $100,000 by the end of 2024, adding that the so-called "crypto winter" was over. Bitcoin could gain from factors including recent turmoil in the banking sector, a stabilisation of risk assets as the U.S. Federal Reserve ends its interest rate-hiking cycle and improved profitability of crypto mining, the bank's analysts said.
Predictions of sky-high valuations have been commonplace during bitcoin's past rallies. A Citi analyst said in November 2020 that bitcoin could climb as high as $318,000 by the end of 2022. It closed last year down about 65% at $16,500.
