Bitcoin to reach $150,000 if Trump wins presidency: Standard Chartered

The U.S. presidential election has emerged as the next key catalyst for the price of bitcoin, and could push it to $150,000 by the end of the year, according to Standard Chartered.

After the launch of U.S. bitcoin ETFs at the beginning of the year, crypto has become as issue of growing and bipartisan interest in Washington. The U.S. historically has held a predominantly anti-crypto stance, but lawmakers more recently have been raising questions about how long that can or should continue.

“As we approach the U.S. election I expect $100,000 to be reached and then $150,000 by year-end in the case of a Trump victory,” Geoff Kendrick, head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, wrote of bitcoin.

After Friday’s big jobs report, “the next large driver for BTC will then become the US election,” he added. “The Biden administration recently showed pragmatism in approving the ETH ETFs, but subsequently Biden vetoed efforts to repeal SAB 121. So Trump is still more friendly than Biden.”

SAB 121 refers to a Securities and Exchange Commission accounting policy that pushes banks to treat digital assets as liabilities on their books.

Bitcoin could reach a new record over the weekend if Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report is friendly, Kendrick said. That would pave the way for $80,000 later this month. The cryptocurrency’s current record, reached on March 14, is $73,797.68.