The value from above cryptocurrency Bitcoin could reach $50,000 (roughly Rs.41,19,200) this year and $120,000 (roughly Rs.98,85,800) by the end of 2024. Standard Chartered said on Monday that the recent price surge could encourage Bitcoin “miners” to hoard more of the supply.
Standard Chartered published a forecast of US$100,000 (approx. Rs.82,38,000) by the end of 2024 Bitcoin As early as April, it was believed that the so-called “crypto winter” was over, but one of the bank’s top FX analysts, Geoff Kendrick, said that forecast now has “upside potential” of 20 percent.
“Higher miner profitability per BTC (bitcoin) mined means they can sell less while maintaining cash inflow, reducing net BTC supply and increasing pressure.” BTC “Prices are going up,” Kendrick said in a report.
Bitcoin’s price is up 80 percent year-to-date, but its current level of just over US$30,200 (about Rs.24,87,900) is still less than half of the $69,000 (about Rs.56,84,000) which it reached in November 2021.
Trillions of dollars have been wiped out crypto Sector in 2022 as central banks hiked rates and a number of crypto firms like the FTX Exchange, implodes. However, this year’s collapse of several traditional banks has prompted a recovery.
Standard Chartered said the reason for the projected price increase is that miners who mint the 900 new bitcoins being produced around the world every day will soon have to sell less to cover their costs – mainly electricity to run supercomputers.
Kendrick estimated miners have recently sold 100 percent of their new coins. However, if the price hits $50,000 (about Rs.41,19,000), they would probably only sell 20 to 30 percent.
“It’s the equivalent of miners reducing the amount of bitcoins they sell per day from the current 900 to just 180-270.”
“Over the course of a year, this would reduce miner sales from 328,500 to a range of 65,700 to 98,550 – a reduction in net BTC supply of around 250,000 bitcoins per year.”
Next April or May, the total number of bitcoins that can be mined each day will also halve as a built-in supply and issuance mechanism gradually caps supply to maintain its attractiveness.
Predictions of sky-high valuations have been the order of the day during past bitcoin rallies. A Citi analyst said in November 2020 that Bitcoin could go as high as $318,000 (about Rs. 2.6 billion) by the end of 2022. Last year it closed down about 65 percent at US$16,500 (about Rs.13.59.2 trillion).
© Thomson Reuters 2023
(This story was not edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
