Standard Chartered's Geoff Kendrick even reports that Bitcoin could soar to as high as $250,000 in 2025, boosted by the success of spot ETFs and growing interest from reserve managers.

Bitcoin next year could surpass analysts' initial forecast of $200,000 in 2025 before retreating to a range around that level. Such a "stellar rise" is likely if capital inflows remain as strong as they are today, and he added that a new source of cash could come from foreign reserves.

"We believe that US and EU sanctions on Russian reserves have structurally increased the attractiveness of non-standard reserve assets for FX reserve managers, Kendrick wrote. The most obvious beneficiaries from this are gold and CNY (Chinese Yuan), but digital assets could also benefit. If they do, we would expect the largest and most liquid assets such as Bitcoin to receive most of the inflows.

Continuation of the rally

Kendrick predicts that bitcoin will reach $150,000 this year. Since the beginning of the year the largest cryptocurrency has gained 73% to hit a new record high of $73,000 after the ETF was approved in January.

Kendrick has long argued that ETFs would open up the crypto to a new group of investors, and now noted that net inflows have become bitcoin's biggest driver. And he emphasized that the halving expected in April will act as a booster.

Further support for the $200,000 outlook comes from the gold vs. bitcoin portfolio optimization, which suggests an 80%-20% split between the two assets. However, current optimization is closer to 91% for gold to 9% for bitcoin.

"Assuming the price of gold remains unchanged, the price of BTC would need to rise to USD 190,000 in order for BTC share to rise to the 20% indicated by our portfolio optimization," Kendrick said.