Bitcoin (BTC) has surged approximately 13% this week, reaching near its all-time high of $124,500 on Friday. According to Geoffrey Kendrick, Standard Chartered's head of digital asset research, this breakthrough could quickly propel BTC to $135,000.
In a Friday research note, Kendrick emphasized that the current U.S. government shutdown is having a more significant market impact than previous instances, bolstering Bitcoin's upward trend. Unlike the 2018-2019 shutdown period, BTC now shows strong correlation with U.S. government risk measured by Treasury term premiums, indicating shutdown uncertainty serves as a bullish catalyst.
Prediction market Polymarket traders currently assign over 60% probability to a 10-29 day shutdown duration. Kendrick predicts continued BTC price appreciation throughout this period.
The report also notes an impending shift in ETF investor behavior. While gold ETFs have recently outperformed Bitcoin ETFs amid record gold prices, spot bitcoin ETF flows are positioned to accelerate, providing additional momentum. Kendrick revealed $23 billion of the $58 billion total net BTC ETF inflows have occurred in 2025, with over $2.25 billion attracted this week alone excluding Friday's session.
Projecting an additional $20 billion in ETF inflows by year-end, Kendrick maintains his $200,000 Bitcoin price target remains achievable.