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- Bitcoin has plunged almost 20% since the second week of July, when Standard Chartered predicted it could surge to $120,000.
- The cryptocurrency had a weak August, losing more than 11% and falling for a second straight month.
- Bitcoin's decline comes amid a broader sell-off in financial markets.
The world's biggest cryptocurrency has plunged nearly 20% since Standard Chartered predicted it could reach $120,000 next year.
The bank made the bold call on July 10, saying bitcoin could see the whopping valuation by the end of 2024 due to increased mining profitability. That means miners can sell fewer tokens to keep the same amount of cash flow, squeezing bitcoin supply and elevating prices, Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick told Insider at the time.
Fundstrat's Tom Lee made an even more bullish prediction around the same time, projecting bitcoin to reach $200,000 over the next few years.
But the cryptocurrency has found the going rough since those predictions. It fell more than 11% in August, falling for a second straight month amid a broader sell-off in stocks and bonds.
Meanwhile, an SEC announcement that it would delay deciding on all spot bitcoin ETF applications until October weighed on the wider crypto industry.
Bitcoin traded around $25,762 at last check on Thursday.
The token's latest declines come after a rally of about 80% in the first half of the year. It's still up by more than 55% year-to-date despite August's losses.
With bitcoin's halving event approaching in April 2024, experts are nonetheless bullish about the cryptocurrency.
"Taking a conservative view," Joe Kelly, cofounder and CEO of Unchained, wrote in a note, "if bitcoin stays around $30K until the halving, even a 12-month post-halving increase of 250% — which, again, is conservative relative to previous halvings — would price bitcoin at $105K."