Bitcoin Set for Quick Run to $135K and Beyond: Standard Chartered

Bitcoin (BTC) has ripped about 13% this week, surging Friday to just shy of a new record of $124,500. With that ceiling nearly cleared, a quick move to $135,000 could be in the cards, according to Standard Chartered head of digital asset research Geoffrey ￰0￱ a note published on Friday, Kendrick argued that the ￰1￱ shutdown is playing a bigger role in markets than in past episodes supporting bitcoin's ￰2￱ the 2018-2019 shutdown, BTC traded in a different context. Now, the largest crypto has been closely correlated with ￰3￱ risk, measured by the ￰4￱ term premiums, a relationship that suggests the uncertainty around the shutdown acts as a bullish driver this ￰5￱ on prediction marketplace Polymarket currently give more than a 60% chance that the shutdown lasts 10–29 ￰6￱ forecasted BTC will continue to rise throughout that ￰7￱ also highlighted a coming shift in ETF investor ￰8￱ gold ETFs have recently outperformed their BTC counterparts with gold pushing to record prices, spot bitcoin ETF flows are poised to catch up providing tailwind for the asset, the report ￰9￱ the $58 billion in net BTC ETF inflows so far, $23 billion has come in 2025, he ￰10￱ week alone, they attracted over $2.25 billion without the Friday ￰11￱ projected that the vehicles could pull in another $20 billion investor capital by year-end – enough to keep his $200,000 year-end BTC price target in play.