Category: Crypto market

An analyst at Standard Chartered who forecasted that bitcoin would reach $120,000 by the second quarter now claims that his price prediction is “too low,” in a lighthearted email sent to clients on Thursday.

Geoffrey Kendrick, head of digital assets at Standard Chartered, apologized that his $120k Q2 target might be too low.

Kendrick wrote a note predicting that a “strategic asset reallocation away from US assets” and “accumulation by ‘whales’ (major holders)” will cause bitcoin to hit an all-time high of about $120,000 in the second quarter of 2025.

According to Kendrick, at the time, “we expect these supportive factors to push BTC to a fresh all-time high around USD 120,000 in Q2.”

Through the summer, we anticipate gains that will move the BTC-USD exchange rate closer to our year-end prediction of 200,000. “

Kendrick stated on Thursday that his $120,000 bitcoin price target now “looks very achievable” and might even be too low. According to the Standard Chartered analyst, “the dominant story for Bitcoin has changed again.”. The risk assets. was associated with it. After that, it evolved into a strategy for strategically reallocating outside the United States.

Additionally, flows come in a variety of shapes,” he continued. His remarks come as Bitcoin is getting closer to $100,000 once more. Analysts have noticed a trend in recent years that indicates bitcoin trading similarly to riskier assets like stocks.

 

Retail investors have been selling Bitcoin because the asset’s protracted consolidation below the $100,000 price level, while larger Bitcoin holders are still confident and adding to their holdings. In a May 6 X post, Santiment stated that the divergent actions of Bitcoin whales and regular investors frequently indicate that the cryptocurrency may be on the verge of another uptrend.

 

“It is typically a strong long-term indication of prices waiting for another breakout when big wallets slowly accumulate in tandem with retail panic selling or selling out of boredom.”

Santiment stated. Over the six weeks since March 26, holders of Bitcoin wallets holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC have amassed 81,338 BTC.

According to Santiment, this might indicate that the psychological $100,000 price level will soon be tested again. If you’re hoping for $100K BTC soon, Santiment stated that most Bitcoin’s major players are heading in the right direction in May

Bitcoin remained volatile and hovered around $97,000 on Wednesday, staying below the April low. According to data from The Block, the Volmex 30-day implied volatility index increased marginally to 48 from 43 the previous week. The markets for derivatives showed cautious positioning.

According to CoinGlass, open interest for Bitcoin futures increased by $2 billion since Monday to $32 billion on Wednesday. The figure is still less than the January peak of $40 billion for the year.

Glassnode data indicated that whales have interpreted XRP’s April recovery and early May downtrend as a signal to buy. In total, whales have amassed $2 billion worth of XRP over the previous 30 days, prompting some traders to wonder if some purchases were insider trading.

 

The altcoin has performed poorly this year. Year-to-date is only 1%  higher but 35% lower than its January highs.

Similarly, the token’s inability to sustain its upward momentum in late April and its two rejections of the $2.29 level within a week make it hard to believe that the overall trend will change based on recent market activity. At the very least, the accumulation shows confidence that the token can remain stable before rising again.

Whales offloaded 370 million XRP during the first two weeks of April, making the significant selling by major holders particularly noteworthy.

Meanwhile, the US Securities and Exchange Commission discussed whether XRP qualified as a security.

The New York Attorney General’s Office requested that the agency submit a brief arguing that it did. On Wednesday morning, Coinbase released over 10,000 documents amid Freedom of Information Act requests to the SEC and other agencies.

Shamiso Maswoswe, the chief of the Investor Protection Bureau at the New York State Office of the Attorney General, requested that the SEC submit an amicus brief “in support of the argument that Ether is a security.”

Chainalysis estimates that 764,000 wallets that bought President Donald Trump’s $TRUMP meme coin have lost money. According to the company’s on-chain analysis, most wallets that experienced financial losses contained smaller quantities of the token.

 

Crypto wallets are the accounts that store the keys needed to access and manage your cryptocurrency holdings. According to Chainalysis, approximately 2 million wallets have purchased the $TRUMP token;  58 wallets have made over $10 million each, totaling around $1.11 billion in gains.

The $TRUMP token has experienced sharp price fluctuations and highly inconsistent returns for investors, especially since it gained popularity following Trump’s second term. Most of the token’s supply is held by LLCs, including Fight Fight Fight and Digital CIC LLC.

After the project’s website promised the top 220 holders a seat at a black-tie-optional dinner with the president, interest in the coin surged by more than 50%.

The President Trump National Golf Club will host the $TRUMP event on May 22, which includes a White House tour and a reception for the 25 wallets with the biggest coin balance.

The token’s market capitalization peaked at $2.1 billion, but declined to about $2.17 billion.

Despite continued volatility in the larger cryptocurrency market, Chainalysis reported that since April 15, 100,000 new wallets have bought $TRUMP, prolonging the post-announcement spike. Ethics watchdogs and regulators watch the Trump-branded meme token.

Now, lawmakers are formally looking into whether the $TRUMP meme coin and World Liberty Financial, a related cryptocurrency business that gives the Trump family 75% of its profits, present a direct conflict of interest for the president.

House Democrats bounded out of a crypto hearing in protest, and the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is checking into the token’s revenue model and ownership structure.

Ripple directly holds 4.56 billion XRP in the first quarter, a slight 1.7 percent increase from the previous quarter’s holdings of 4.48 billion XRP. Along with its liquid assets, Ripple’s escrow system allows it to control a much larger reserve.

 

The amount of XRP tokens in escrow is about 37.1 billion, 2.3 percent less than the 38 billion reported at the end of the previous quarter.

Ripple releases escrowed tokens, progressively unlocking one billion XRP every cycle monthly. However, some released tokens are relocked, restricting circulation and possibly lessening market selling pressure.

According to recent remarks made by Bitwise President Teddy Fusaro, Ripple has a sizable XRP reserve that would allow it to buy several cryptocurrency companies. The company’s recent plans and actions are consistent with this statement.

Ripple’s Q1 report confirms the purchase of Hidden Road.
Additionally, it has been reported that Ripple is considering purchasing Circle, the fintech business that issues the USDC stablecoin, one of the most popular dollar-pegged digital currencies.

If completed, the purchase of Circle might greatly increase Ripple’s market share in the stablecoin space and open up new opportunities for product advancement and market expansion.

Ripple’s most recent financial disclosure demonstrates its intention to be a major force in the digital finance industry.