Bitcoin (BTC) broke through the $80,000 mark last Sunday, reaching a high of $81,500. Since the confirmation of Donald Trump's election as the President of the United States on November 6, the election day, Bitcoin has risen by 17%.
According to a report by The Block, Geoff Kendrick, the head of foreign exchange and digital assets research at Standard Chartered, predicts that Bitcoin will continue to rise by the end of the year, reaching a "very achievable" $100,000 before the expiration of some Bitcoin options on December 27. In a report released on October 24, he predicted that Bitcoin would break through $73,000 on the day of the US election.
Kendrick said: "I'm forecasting the next level is $125,000 by the end of this year, although I note that a lot of the Trump trades peaked around January 20th after the 2016 election... so if BTC doesn't make it to $125,000 by December 31st, I think it will by January 20th."
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ToggleBullish on SOL reaching new highs by the end of the year
Kendrick further predicted that, given the recent rallies in Ethereum's ETH and Solana's SOL, Bitcoin's rise may "lift all boats" (i.e., drive the growth of the entire market), and some tokens may outperform Bitcoin.
"A new all-time high for SOL (previous high of $260 in November 2021) by the end of the year seems inevitable. As for a new high for ETH (breaking the November 2021 high of $4,866), we may have to wait until around the time of the inauguration," Kendrick wrote. "More broadly, we think the overall market will continue to rise, and of the three, SOL may be the best performer."
Cryptocurrency market cap to reach $10 trillion by 2026
The rise in Bitcoin prices and the bullish activity in the stock market have driven the prices of various other cryptocurrencies. According to data from The Block, Cardano's ADA rose over 35% last Sunday, which may have been influenced by comments made by its founder, Charles Hoskinson, over the weekend, in which he expressed an intention to lobby the Trump administration for favorable cryptocurrency policies.
"I have personal relationships with some legislators and some people who are now members of the Trump administration," Hoskinson said. "We hope to have good conversations with them over the next few months, to integrate these policies, and I hope to be involved, but given the fact that they're not yet in office, that remains to be seen."
Kendrick predicts that the overall cryptocurrency market's total value will continue to rise with the adoption of cryptocurrencies, writing:
"With the overall market rising and new real-world use cases emerging, I think the entire asset class will reach $10 trillion by the end of 2026."
According to data from CoinGecko, the total cryptocurrency market cap was $2.88 trillion at the time of writing, not yet surpassing the $3 trillion all-time high reached in November 2021.
