Standard Chartered remains bullish on Bitcoin: The situation in the Middle East has triggered a recent pullback, but it will double again before the end of the year

PANews reported on April 23 that after Bitcoin completed its once-every-four-years "halving" last Saturday Beijing time, Morgan Stanley issued a warning that Bitcoin might fall after the "halving". However, Jeff Kendrick, head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered Bank, reiterated in a recent interview that his price target for Bitcoin by the end of this year is $150,000. This means that Bitcoin will more than double from its historical high in March this year by the end of this year.

Kendrick stated that the decline in Bitcoin over the past few weeks was mainly due to a slowdown in ETF inflows and tensions in the Middle East - he bluntly said that current Middle East situation has recently been "dominating" the crypto market. But looking forward, he believes with continuous large-scale inflow of bitcoin ETF funds later this year could potentially reverse cryptocurrency market's downward trend and continue to rise.

Kendrick estimated since getting approval earlier this January; US spot bitcoin ETFs have absorbed about $12 billion. He predicts despite current cautious sentiment within crypto circle but once U.S.'s cryptocurrency ETF market becomes more matured future fund inflows could reach between $50 billion to $100 billion over next two years.