Overview
- Bitcoin briefly fell under $90,000 early Thursday after Oracle’s weak outlook revived worries about AI profitability and risk assets, following the Fed’s quarter‑point cut and cautious guidance.
- Prices hovered in the low‑$90,000s, while ether dropped about 4%, erasing gains from earlier in the week as tech‑led jitters spread to crypto.
- Standard Chartered cut its forecast to $100,000 for end‑2025 and $150,000 for 2026, and it now projects $500,000 in 2030 after delaying that long‑term target by two years.
- The bank cites a pullback by listed bitcoin‑treasury companies and slower spot ETF inflows—around 50,000 BTC this quarter—leaving ETFs as the primary near‑term demand pillar.
- Strategists at Standard Chartered, VanEck and Bernstein say ETF and institutional flows are overtaking the traditional four‑year halving cycle as the key framework for bitcoin’s price behavior.