Bitcoin to $50,000? Standard Chartered predicts ‘more pain’ for price

Bitcoin investors better brace for “more pain” as the price of the top cryptocurrency is set to plunge to $50,000 or even lower over the next few months, according to Standard Chartered.

The British bank’s global head of digital assets research, Geoffrey Kendrick, offered that forecast in a Thursday note to investors shared with DL News.

“We are going to see more pain and a final capitulation period for digital asset prices in the next few months,” Kendrick wrote.

Not only did he forecast that Bitcoin would plunge 26% to $50,000, but said Ethereum is set to shed almost 30% of its current value and drop to $1,400 over the next few months.

Standard Chartered also lowered its expectations for where the top cryptocurrencies will end the year, saying Bitcoin will finish the year at $100,000 and Ethereum at $4,000. Kendrick previously said they’d finish 2026 at $150,000 and $7,500, respectively.

Bitcoin and Ethereum hit all-time highs of $126,080 and $4,946, respectively, in 2025.

Market bloodbath

Kendrick’s pessimistic outlook echoes the sentiment of other industry watchers across the cryptosphere who’ve observed the market bloodbath that have bled $2 trillion, or about half, of the total cryptocurrency market’s value since October.

Still, Kendrick said things will get worse due to investors in Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds not buying the dip, but opting to sell instead.

He added that the “macro risk backdrop is also becoming more challenging”, and that traders have already priced in two interest rate cuts until June, when the new Federal Reserve chief takes over.

Crypto markets have typically performed well in a low-interest rate environment. US President Donald Trump in January chose Kevin Warsh to chair the Federal Reserve in place of Jerome Powell.

Warsh has argued for lower interest rates last year but economists are split over how he will behave when he becomes the central bank’s chief.

His confirmation hearing is yet to be scheduled.

The good news

To be sure, Kendrick argued that crypto as an asset class was becoming “more resilient”, and selloffs would be less painful than previous cycles.

The collapse of decentralised finance protocol Terra and subsequent crash of crypto exchange FTX in 2022 caused Bitcoin to drop from its 2021 record of $69,000 to under $16,000 — a nearly 80% drop.

Even if Bitcoin’s price falls to $50,000, it would only have lost 60% of its value since reaching its record high in October.

Every cloud has a silver lining, right?

Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at [email protected].