Standard Chartered Bank Analyst: Still Expects Bitcoin Price to Potentially Reach $200,000 by End of Year

January 27th: Geoffrey Kendrick, an analyst at Standard Chartered Bank, proposed purchasing Bitcoin during a dip as the cryptocurrency is facing increasing correlation pressure with the Nasdaq. Geoffrey Kendrick, the head of Foreign Exchange and Digital Asset Research at Standard Chartered Bank, said, "The correlation between Bitcoin and the Nasdaq remains extremely strong; it is much higher than its correlation with gold." He pointed out that the Nasdaq futures dropped by 3% due to news related to DeepSeek, which triggered significant overnight cryptocurrency liquidation and further strengthened the connection between cryptocurrencies and the US stock tech sector. Kendrick stated, "The current risk is that if the Nasdaq liquidation continues during US trading hours (and considering the earnings announcements of Microsoft, Meta, and Tesla on Wednesday, as well as the potentially disappointing FOMC meeting), we may be approaching other key levels for Bitcoin." He added, "Specifically, since the US election, the average buying level for Bitcoin ETF is now $96,400." Kendrick also referred to the cryptocurrency executive order issued by the Trump administration last week, which requires a working group to assess a national digital asset reserve. He pointed out that this announcement brought uncertainty to the market. Kendrick said, "I am disappointed in two aspects of this: 1. The term 'reserve' seems more like seized assets rather than purchased assets. 2. The executive order has been issued, and any further clarification or action will need to go through Congress, which may take some time." Kendrick said, "The disappointment/confusion phase and the 'hope' phase are over, reducing the risk in the Bitcoin market." He believes that the next phase will be 'buying on the dip.' Last week, Kendrick outlined three stages: 'when hope fades,' 'buying on the dip,' and 'altcoin alpha.' In the second stage, he predicted that institutional funds would dominate the market and reiterated Standard Chartered Bank's price target for Bitcoin of $200,000 and for Ethereum of $10,000, expecting to be achieved by the end of this year. (The Block)