Bitcoin is set for more price gains later this year, even after a recent retreat in prices, according to Standard Chartered’s top crypto analyst. Geoffrey Kendrick, head of foreign exchange research, West, and digital assets research at Standard Chartered, said in a research note this week that he sees bitcoin rising to $150,000 per coin, and ether hitting $8,000 by the end of 2024 — doubling down on a bullish prediction from the bank earlier this year. “We think the bad news is already priced in for BTC and ETH, and that positive structural drivers will take over again as negative drivers fade,” Kendrick said in the April 22 note. “In addition, market positioning is now much cleaner than it was; USD 261mn of leveraged long positions were removed from BTC futures alone on 13 April – the largest daily liquidation since at least October 2023 – in response to Iran’s attack on Israel that day.” Kendrick was referring to the liquidation of speculative bitcoin trades that were augmented by investors using borrowed cash to make bigger bets on the future swings in the price of the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin temporarily sank below $60,000 last week as traders reacted to news of an escalating military conflict between Iran and Israel. While the cryptocurrency’s proponents believe bitcoin to be a hedge against periods of economic and geopolitical instability, bitcoin has behaved more like traditional risk assets, like equities, in recent years, as more institutional investors have piled money into the asset. In fact, bitcoin’s trading has shown it can often react to bad news more quickly than equity traders as the crypto market runs 24/7, while stocks and other conventional markets trade only during weekdays. Still, despite bitcoin’s losses in the wake of Iran’s recent attack on Israel, Kendrick believes the cryptocurrency has potential to move higher in the coming months and hit a fresh record high well above the $73,797.68 price it hit on March 14. Kendrick said that the supply shock from bitcoin’s halving — which limits the supply of new bitcoin issuance to 3.125 bitcoins, or about $208,360.31 as of Wednesday, down from 6.25 bitcoins — as well as the arrival of new bitcoin exchange-traded funds, which are sucking up billions’ of dollars worth of the cryptocurrency from exchanges, would support prices toward the end of 2024. That’s even as the token contends with a litany of other bad news, including a stalling of new bitcoin ETF inflows in the United States; dampening expectations for approval of an ether spot ETF in the U.S.; a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit against decentralized exchange Uniswap; higher U.S. Treasury yields; and escalating tensions in the Middle East. “Yes BTC ETF inflows in the US have stalled, but now we are passed the halving only half as much inflow is needed to cover net new supply, and the global ETF backdrop (UK, HK) is improving. Also, large long liquidations over the past couple of weeks mean that market positioning is a lot cleaner,” Kendrick said. “As a result, with Middle East tensions easing I think it is time to re-engage in medium-term longs.”
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, leaves the U.S. Capitol after a meeting with Republican members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on the issue of de-banking on Feb. 13, 2025.
Dimon, the veteran CEO and chairman of the biggest U.S. bank by assets, explained his worldview during his bank’s annual investor day meeting in New York. He said he believes the risks of higher inflation and even stagflation aren’t properly represented by stock market values, which have staged a comeback from lows in April.
“We have huge deficits; we have what I consider almost complacent central banks,” Dimon said. “You all think they can manage all this. I don’t think” they can, he said.
“My own view is people feel pretty good because you haven’t seen effective tariffs” yet, Dimon said. “The market came down 10%, [it’s] back up 10%; that’s an extraordinary amount of complacency.”
Dimon’s comments follow Moody’s rating agency downgrading the U.S. credit rating on Friday over concerns about the government’s growing debt burden. Markets have been whipsawed the past few months over worries that President Donald Trump‘s trade policies will raise inflation and slow the world’s largest economy.
Dimon said Monday that he believed Wall Street earnings estimates for S&P 500 companies, which have already declined in the first weeks of Trump’s trade policies, will fall further as companies pull or lower guidance amid the uncertainty.
In six months, those projections will fall to 0% earnings growth after starting the year at around 12%, Dimon said. If that were to happen, stocks prices will likely fall.
“I think earnings estimates will come down, which means PE will come down,” Dimon said, referring to the “price to earnings” ratio tracked closely by stock market analysts.
The odds of stagflation, “which is basically a recession with inflation,” are roughly double what the market thinks, Dimon added.
Separately, one of Dimon’s top deputies said that corporate clients are still in “wait-and-see” mode when it comes to acquisitions and other deals.
Investment banking revenue is headed for a “mid-teens” percentage decline in the second quarter compared with the year-earlier period, while trading revenue was trending higher by a “mid-to-high” single digit percentage, said Troy Rohrbaugh, a co-head of the firm’s commercial and investment bank.
On the ever-present question of Dimon’s timeline to hand over the CEO reins to one of his deputies, Dimon said that nothing changed from his guidance last year, when he said he would likely remain for less than five more years.
“If I’m here for four more years, and maybe two more” as executive chairman, Dimon said, “that’s a long time.”
Of all the executive presentations given Monday, consumer banking chief Marianne Lake had the longest speaking time at a full hour. She is considered a top successor candidate, especially after Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Piepszak said she would not be seeking the top job.
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. UnitedHealth — The health insurer’s stock popped roughly 7% as investors scooped up shares of the beaten-down name, which lost 23% last week. UnitedHealth had suspended its 2025 guidance, announced that its CEO is stepping down and is reportedly the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation . Reddit — Shares of the social media stock dropped more than 4% following a downgrade to equal weight from overweight at Wells Fargo. The firm said search traffic disruptions at Reddit are likely to become lasting as Google’s search integrates full artificial intelligence capabilities. Tesla , Palantir — Shares of retail investor favorites Tesla and Palantir each slid more than 3% as key tech stocks led Monday’s stock market losses. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals — Shares of the drugmaker dropped about 1% after the company announced it had agreed to pay $256 million to buy most of the assets of genetic data company 23andMe out of bankruptcy. Regeneron’s deal does not include Lemonaid Health, 23andMe’s telehealth subsidiary. Bath & Body Works — Shares ticked 1% lower after the personal care retailer said CEO Gina Boswell would step down immediately. The company said former Nike executive Daniel Heaf would replace her. Alibaba — U.S.-listed shares of the Chinese e-commerce giant traded 1% lower after the New York Times reported that the Trump administration has raised concerns about Apple’ s plan to use Alibaba’s A.I. on iPhones in China. TXNM Energy — Shares of the energy company popped 7% after TXNM agreed to be acquired by Blackstone’s infrastructure unit. TXNM Energy shareholders will receive $61.25 in cash for each share as part of the deal. — CNBC’s Alex Harring, Jesse Pound and Michelle Fox contributed reporting.
Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna, speaking at a fintech event in London on Monday, April 4, 2022.
Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg via Getty Images
Klarna saw its losses jump in the first quarter as the popular buy now, pay later firm applies the brakes on a hotly anticipated U.S. initial public offering.
The Swedish payments startup said its net loss for the first three months of 2025 totaled $99 million — significantly worse than the $47 million loss it reported a year ago. Klarna said this was due to several one-off costs related to depreciation, share-based payments and restructuring.
Revenues at the firm increased 13% year-over-year to $701 million. Klarna said it now has 100 million active users and 724,00 merchant partners globally.
It comes as Klarna remains in pause mode regarding a highly anticipated U.S. IPO that was at one stage set to value the SoftBank-backed company at over $15 billion.
Klarna put its IPO plans on hold last month due to market turbulence caused by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff plans. Online ticketing platform StubHub also put its IPO plans on ice.
Prior to the IPO delay, Klarna had been on a marketing blitz touting itself as an artificial intelligence-powered fintech. The company partnered up with ChatGPT maker OpenAI in 2023. A year later, Klarna used OpenAI technology to create an AI customer service assistant.
Last week, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said the company was able to shrink its headcount by about 40%, in part due to investments in AI.