Bitcoin Faces New Wave of Bearish Price Forecasts — Standard Chartered Says $100,000 By Year-End Anyway

The market’s leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), has climbed back above $64,000 after hitting its lowest level of the year at $57,000 earlier this month — but bearish forecasts continue to circulate across the industry. Standard Chartered, however, reaffirmed its $100,000 year-end price target for BTC. 

Standard Chartered Says Strategy’s Bitcoin Sell-off Is Noise 

The bank’s global head of digital assets research, Geoff Kendrick, pointed directly at Strategy (MSTR) — the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder with over 800,000 coins — as the source of recent market turbulence. 

In his view, the volatility surrounding Bitcoin has less to do with the asset itself and more to do with how Strategy has communicated a shift in how it uses its holdings. “I see what is happening at MSTR right now as a communication challenge, nothing more,” Kendrick wrote.

The firm’s holdings are now being positioned as collateral backing credit products — specifically its perpetual preferred stock, STRC, which carries a 12% annual dividend yield. To fund that dividend, the company formerly known as MicroStrategy has begun selling portions of its BTC holdings, adding selling pressure to the market. 

Kendrick argues that once investors understand the new approach, the pressure on both Bitcoin and Strategy’s stock should ease. He drew a comparison to central banks pledging to do “whatever it takes” — suggesting that a credible communication of Strategy’s new framework could reduce the actual need to sell BTC.

Where BTC Goes Next 

Kendrick also expects STRC’s price to return to its $100 par value in the near term — a move that would remove the Bitcoin selling pressure currently tied to the dividend obligation. The stock closed Friday’s session at $87, up 2% on the day.

Standard Chartered’s overall read is that the recent selloff represents short-term noise rather than a meaningful change in Bitcoin’s direction. At $64,000, Kendrick called BTC “a screaming buy.” But not everyone shares that view.

As CryptoDepth has reported over the last week, some analysts see a deeper correction as possible if current market conditions worsen, with $48,300 identified as the level that would represent an optimal long-term buying zone — a further 24% decline from current prices. 

On the upside, others have flagged $63,800 as the immediate ceiling to watch, arguing that a clean break above that level would bring the $66,600 to $67,600 resistance range into play and signal the downtrend has genuinely reversed.

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