Bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies have been reinvigorated by the banking crisis that has suddenly swept the U.S. and Europe this year—despite a dire warning that “crypto is dead in America.”
The bitcoin price has rocketed back to $30,000 per bitcoin after swinging wildly this month. The ethereum price has also bounced after a sudden explosion in institutional activity.
Now, after First Republic sparked fears it could follow Silicon Valley Bank and Signature BankSBNY into collapse, the case for bitcoin as “decentralized, trustless and scarce digital asset” has been solidified, according to a top Standard Chartered analyst—alongside a bitcoin price prediction that could see it reach a market capitalization of $2 trillion.
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“We see potential for bitcoin to reach the $100,000 level by end-2024, as we believe the much-touted ‘crypto winter’ is finally over,” Standard Chartered’s head of digital assets research Geoff Kendrick wrote in a note.
Bitcoin, ethereum and smaller cryptocurrencies have been stuck in a brutal bear market sometimes called crypto winter over the last 18 months, pushing many crypto companies to the brink and culminating in the collapse of major crypto exchange FTX late last year.
Since then the bitcoin price has doubled, along with the ethereum price, with the banking crisis that has now spread to Silicon Valley-based First Republic renewing interest in bitcoin, ethereum and crypto.
“The current stress in the traditional banking sector is highly conducive to bitcoin outperformance—and validates the original premise for bitcoin as a decentralized, trustless and scarce digital asset,” Kendrick wrote. “Given these advantages, we think bitcoin’s share of total digital assets market cap could move into the 50%-60% range in the next few months (from around 45% currently).”
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However, some fear that bitcoin and ethereum could be about to run into “resistance.”
“The up-and-coming 24/7 traded leading indicators, revolutionary technologies and assets—bitcoin and ethereum—may be running into a wall of resistance at the key round number levels of $30,000 and $2,000,” Bloomberg Intelligence senior macro strategist Mike McGlone wrote in an emailed note.
“Our bias is bullish in the long term for the top cryptos, but an overwhelming force of the stock market going down with the Fed tightening into a recession has the potential to lower the tide for all risk assets, and bitcoin and ethereum are among the riskiest.”
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