Global banking giant Standard Chartered has reiterated its ambitious BTC price predictions of 2025, forecasting the cryptocurrency will soar to $135,000 by September and reach a staggering $200,000 by December – nearly doubling from current levels around $109,000.
The British bank’s bold projection hinges on a fundamental shift in Bitcoin’s market dynamics, with institutional treasury buying and exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows breaking the historical post-halving price decline pattern that has dominated previous cryptocurrency cycles.
Standard Chartered’s head of digital asset research, Geoff Kendrick, who previously apologized for a “conservative” BTC target earlier this year, moving beyond the traditional halving cycle that previously triggered price corrections 18 months after mining reward cuts.
The April 2024 halving would typically signal price declines around September-October 2025, but Kendrick believes new institutional forces have fundamentally altered this dynamic.
Potential Short-Term Volatility
“Thanks to increased investor flows, we believe BTC has moved beyond the previous dynamic whereby prices fell 18 months after a ‘halving’ cycle,” Kendrick explained in his latest research note. Unlike previous halving events in 2016 and 2020, the current cycle benefits from unprecedented ETF support and corporate treasury adoption that simply didn’t exist before.
The bank acknowledges potential short-term volatility, warning that prices could remain “choppy in late Q3 and early Q4” as markets grapple with historical halving patterns. However, Kendrick expects any weakness to be temporary, with strong institutional demand ultimately driving prices to new all-time highs.
Bitcoin ETF flows and corporate treasury purchases totaled an impressive 245,000 BTC in Q2 alone, and Standard Chartered projects even higher acquisition levels in both Q3 and Q4. This institutional appetite represents a seismic shift from previous cycles when Bitcoin relied primarily on retail investor sentiment.
Corporate Treasury Revolution
The transformation of BTC from speculative asset to corporate treasury staple has reached a tipping point. A growing roster of 141 publicly traded companies now holds 849,400 Bitcoin worth over $92 billion, led by MicroStrategy’s massive 597,000 BTC position valued at approximately $65 billion.
Strategy pioneered this corporate Bitcoin strategy in 2020, shifting from software development to become the world’s largest corporate BTC holder. The company’s near-weekly Bitcoin purchases throughout 2025 have inspired numerous copycats, with Japanese firm Metaplanet recently adding 1,005 BTC worth $108 million to reach 13,350 BTC total holdings.
Kendrick anticipates this corporate adoption trend will accelerate, stating: “We expect Bitcoin treasuries as a whole to buy more BTC in Q3 than they did in Q2 — a positive driver of flows.” The analyst believes more public companies will follow MicroStrategy’s playbook, viewing Bitcoin as a superior treasury asset compared to traditional cash holdings.
Standard Chartered’s projection aligns with similar predictions from asset manager Bitwise, which also forecasts $200,000 Bitcoin based on institutional demand and regulatory clarity around stablecoins. The convergence of these bullish forecasts suggests growing confidence that Bitcoin’s institutional adoption has reached a critical mass capable of sustaining unprecedented price levels.
