Bitcoin has entered a phase of volatility, significantly dropping to $104,000 on October 10, 2025, as part of a historic $19 billion market liquidation event. This decline marks the lowest Bitcoin price seen in four months, igniting reactions throughout the cryptocurrency community.
Despite this turbulence, Standard Chartered’s Geoff Kendrick remains resolute. The global head of digital assets research boldly reiterated his target of $200,000 for Bitcoin by the end of 2025 during discussions at the recent European Blockchain Convention held in Barcelona. Kendrick’s sentiments suggest a continuing confidence amidst market instability.
Currently, Bitcoin’s price hovers around $108,260, reflecting a 6% decline over the past month. While it remains well short of earlier heights, there are signs of recovery following the sharp dip. Kendrick warned that the implications of the recent liquidation may linger for several weeks but anticipates a phase where investors may view this sell-off as an opportunity to accumulate assets.
Even in a more pessimistic scenario, Kendrick forecasts Bitcoin surpassing $150,000 by year-end, contingent on the US Federal Reserve’s policies, particularly if interest rates continue to trend downward.
Recent data highlights a resurgence in Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with reported inflows of $477 million on Tuesday—successfully breaking a troubling four-day streak of losses. This indicates renewed investor interest in Bitcoin as a viable asset class.
Supporting Accumulation Trends
CryptoQuant recently published a report indicating that structural demand for Bitcoin remains robust despite the current market’s short-term weaknesses. The analysis spotlighted the ‘dolphin’ cohort—wallets holding between 100 and 1,000 BTC—which now controls approximately 26% of the total Bitcoin supply. In 2025 alone, this group has accumulated an impressive 681,000 BTC, clearly indicating a growing appetite among significant holders.
Categorized as pivotal in the evolving market narrative, this dolphin cohort includes ETFs, corporations, and emerging significant individual holders who’ve notably increased their Bitcoin balances even as other groups have reported declines in theirs.
CryptoQuant characterized the prevailing market dynamics as reflecting a ‘late-stage maturity segment’ in an ongoing uptrend cycle, though they cautioned that Bitcoin requires another phase of accumulation to facilitate a breakout past the $126,000 threshold, identifying $115,000 as immediate resistance and $100,000 as essential support.
Institutional Optimism Continues
Moreover, Tiger Research echoed the optimistic projections with a bullish outlook, also setting a $200,000 target by the end of Q4. They assert that the significant October downturn demonstrates a transformative shift from a retail-driven market to one predominated by institutional investors, which may support price resilience moving forward.
The firm noted that unlike the panic selling witnessed in late 2021, recent sell-offs exhibited limited downside and were met with continued institutional buying. They anticipate that further Federal Reserve interest rate cuts could fuel a market rally in the upcoming quarter. Institutional participation during this consolidation period is seen as critical for driving Bitcoin’s price higher.
Kendrick suggested that Bitcoin could mirror gold’s strong performance, noting that recent all-time highs for the precious metal could reignite Bitcoin’s narrative as a safe-haven asset. The strong ETF inflows seen this week could be serving as a precursor to a more expansive upward movement in Bitcoin’s price trajectory.
