Standard Chartered’s bullish crypto analyst still sees bitcoin’s price hitting $500,000 during Donald Trump’s presidency — even after a selloff that sank the world’s largest digital currency to a three-month low.
Geoffrey Kendrick, who heads up digital assets research at Standard Chartered, told CNBC he believes bitcoin will hit the $200,000 mark this year before climbing even further in the coming years.
“Within the crypto ecosystem, what we need are traditional financial players, like Standard Chartered, like BlackRock and others that have the ETFs now to really step in,” Kendrick said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” Thursday.
“As the industry becomes more institutionalized, it should be safer,” Kendrick said, adding that this should result in fewer negative headlines — such as the recent $1.5 billion hack on cryptocurrency exchange Bybit last week.
This increase in crypto adoption by institutions, coupled with some “regulatory clarity” in the U.S., should lead to less volatility over time, he added.
“That should add to that medium term, top-side potential, which for me is bitcoin up to $200,000 this year, and $500,000 before Trump leaves office,” Kendrick told CNBC.
Kendrick said the catalyst necessary for large financial institutions to gain confidence to invest in bitcoin and other crypto assets is a stabilization in prices and increased regulatory clarity.
Bitcoin earlier this week sank to a three-month low below $90,000 amid declines in global equity markets. As of Thursday, the token was trading at $86,418. That means it’s down about 20% from an all-time high of $108,786, which the coin peaked at in January, according to CoinGecko data.
Standard Chartered’s Kendrick said digital currencies have dropped more broadly due to uncertainty around tariffs and resolutions to major wars such as Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza.
“Risk assets don’t like uncertainty, and so that’s what we’ve seen. We’ve seen tech stocks in the U.S. coming lower,” Kendrick said, adding that the breach of Bybit has also contributed to negative sentiment surrounding crypto more broadly.
He expects the outlook for crypto will improve later in the year as traders await key regulatory developments in the industry, such as new rules around stablecoins and anti-money laundering.
“That should further legitimize, so you’ll see more U.S. banks involved. You’ll see larger institutions in the U.S. continue to push through,” Kendrick said.
Kendrick was one of the numerous market analysts who predicted a doubling in bitcoin’s price this year to $200,000. Bitcoin broke the highly anticipated $100,000 mark in December following Trump’s election to the U.S. presidency.
Crypto bulls view Trump positively given his support for digital currencies. In January, Trump signed an executive order promoting the advancement of cryptocurrencies in the U.S. and developing a national digital asset stockpile.
Lisa Su, president and CEO of AMD, talks about the AMD EPYC processor during a keynote address at the 2019 CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., January 9, 2019.
Steve Marcus | Reuters
AMDsaid on Wednesday that its board of directors approved $6 billion in share buybacks. The stock climbed 6%.
The authorization is in addition to $4 billion in existing approved share repurchases, the company said.
“Our expanded share repurchase program reflects the Board’s confidence in AMD’s strategic direction, growth prospects, and ability to consistently generate strong free cash flow,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said in a statement.
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AMD, the most important artificial intelligence chip company aside from Nvidia, reported 96 cents in earnings per share on $7.44 billion in revenue in its fiscal first quarter.
AMD announced a deal potentially worth $10 billion in investment on Tuesday to support an AI company called Humain in Saudi Arabia with chips. Su was in Saudi Arabia this week to announce the deal.
AMD said that it would provide graphics processors for AI as well as central processors needed to build AI servers to Humain, which is also buying Nvidia processors. Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya added $10 to his price target for AMD, bringing it to $130 per share, on the news.
A file photo of Hiroki Totoki, Sony Group Corporation executive, delivering a keynote address at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, on January 6, 2025.
Artur Widak | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Sony Group shares rose about 2% Wednesday in volatile trading after the Japanese conglomerate announced a 250 billion yen ($1.7 billion) share buyback and operating income beat estimates.
Operating income for the last three months of the financial year came in at 203.6 billion yen, beating mean analyst estimates of 192.2 billion yen, though it was down 11% from the same period last year.
In the earnings report, the Japanese-based electronics, entertainment and finance company announced a stock buyback of shares worth 250 billion yen.
Sony also provided details on a partial spinoff of its financial unit. The company plans to distribute slightly more than 80% of the shares of common stock of the spinoff to shareholders of Sony Group through dividends.
The financial unit will list its financial operation this year and will be classified as a discontinued operation in Sony’s accounting from the current quarter, the company added.
However, Sony’s outlook for the current financial year ending in March was lackluster.
The company forecasted its operating profit to rise a slight 0.3% to 1.28 trillion yen, after flagging a 100 billion yen hit from U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.
Yet, Sony clarified that the estimated tariff impact did not reflect the trade deal made between the U.S. and China on May 12 and that the actual impact could vary significantly.