Standard Chartered Bank analyst and head of digital assets research, Geoff Kendrick, believes bitcoin (BTC) will likely trend higher following the halving due to lower leveraged positions in the market.

Speaking to BNN Bloomberg during an interview over the weekend, Kendrick said the current market environment, which has lower leverage, could propel the value of BTC upwards toward Standard Chartered’s end-of-year price target of $150,000.

A Lower Leveraged Market

The week preceding the Bitcoin halving weekend ended with the crypto market witnessing millions of liquidations in short and long positions as tensions escalated in the Middle East. BTC plunged by almost ten grand as news of Iran’s attacks against Israel made the rounds, leaving a trail of ruin in its wake.

Bitcoin fell from $71,000 to $65,000 and then to $61,000 within a day. Over 300,000 traders were wrecked, with liquidations running into $1.8 billion. The bloodshed from that weekend flushed out millions of leveraged Bitcoin positions, with April 13 alone marking the highest daily liquidation since October 2023.

Kendrick said the liquidation of leveraged positions has cleared a pathway for the crypto market to trend higher and that it is poised to move up from its current position. Since the market went into the halving squared in terms of leverage, it could rebound and surge to new levels.

ETF Inflows to Drive BTC Uptrend

Besides the lesser leveraged positions in the market, Kendrick also mentioned inflows into the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) and positive news expected from the situation between Iran and Israel as potential catalysts for higher BTC trends.

Although the inflows of spot Bitcoin ETFs have stalled for now, the Standard Chartered analyst expects capital inflows of $50-$100 billion within the next 18 to 24 months as the market matures. Likening the Bitcoin ETF space to that of gold, Kendrick predicted that it could grow by 4.3x as inflows continue over time, propelling BTC to $150,000 by the end of 2024 and $200,000 by 2025.

Meanwhile, Standard Chartered predicted that BTC could hit $250,000 in 2025 if Bitcoin ETF inflows reach the mid-point estimate of $75 billion.