Last-Ever Bitcoin Dip Below $100,000 Looms This Week, Standard Chartered Warns

Bitcoin hovered near the mid-$100,000s on Thursday, Oct. 23, as Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research Geoffrey Kendrick warned that a move below $100,000 by this weekend “seems inevitable”—while adding that any break could be fleeting the last last time bitcoin is ever below six ￰0￱ remarks, delivered in a mid-week client note and shared by The Block, frame a tactical pullback inside a still-intact macro bull thesis the bank has championed for months. Last-Ever Bitcoin Dip Under $100,000 Ahead Kendrick’s message juxtaposes near-term caution with longer-term ￰1￱ the same research cycle where Standard Chartered reiterated a target of $200,000 by year-end—hinging on ETF demand, corporate treasury uptake, and a friendlier policy backdrop—the strategist has now flagged an air-pocket toward sub-$100,000 as the market digests October’s sell-off and a tepid bounce.

“A decline below $100,000 now appears ‘inevitable,’” Kendrick said on Wednesday, while stressing that any dip should be short-lived and likely the “last-ever chance to buy BTC for less than six figures.” Related Reading: Bitcoin Cycle Top Still Not In, Suggests NVT Golden Cross The recalibration follows an early-October swing that saw bitcoin fail to hold above its recent local high—Kendrick cited the Oct. 10 risk-off break and the absence of a strong reflex rally—shifting the bank’s focus to where the market bottoms rather than whether it immediately resumes ￰2￱ the latest note, Kendrick pointed to a handful of signposts for a base-building phase, including monitoring capital rotation between gold and bitcoin and the trajectory of US dollar liquidity and quantitative ￰3￱ also observed that bitcoin has respected its 50-week moving average since early 2023, a level he views as an important longer-duration line in the ￰4￱ near-term crosscurrents complicate, but do not upend, Standard Chartered’s cycle ￰5￱ recently as July 2, the bank told clients it expected the largest dollar rally on record in the second half of 2025, with bitcoin at $200,000 by ￰6￱ framing—ETF inflows, corporate balance-sheet adoption, and regulatory normalization as the dominant drivers—remains the core of Kendrick’s upside case, even as he concedes that a brief trip under $100,000 is now probable.

“The decline could mark the last time to ever buy BTC for six figures,” the latest dispatch ￰7￱ Reading: Bitcoin Could Crash 50%, Pushing MSTR ‘Underwater,’ Legendary Trader Warns Market context is aligned with the cautionary near-term ￰8￱ the past two weeks, bitcoin has shed roughly ten percent, with spot trading today around $108,000 as liquidity thins into the weekend and macro sensitivity to policy headlines remains ￰9￱ matters from here is whether the confirmation signals Kendrick highlighted begin to line up. A decisive improvement in dollar liquidity conditions, sustained evidence of rotation back into bitcoin at the expense of gold, and preservation of higher-timeframe trend structures would validate the “last time below $100,000” ￰10￱ those, a deeper retracement cannot be ruled out, but that scenario would represent a deviation from the bank’s published roadmap rather than its base ￰11￱ now, Standard Chartered’s message is unambiguous: brace for a dip under six figures, but treat it—quoting Kendrick directly—as “the last-ever chance to buy BTC for less than six figures,” provided the medium-term catalysts ￰12￱ press time, BTC traded at $109,953.

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