Bitcoin (BTCUSD) has had a strong 2024, climbing past many price milestones—including $100,000—as a confluence of factors drove up investor confidence in the leading cryptocurrency.

This year’s runup started with demand associated with the spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that began trading in January, followed by a halving that limited supply of new bitcoin and then the hope for crypto-supportive policies after the reelection of Donald Trump, seemingly reinforced by several of his post-election appointments.

While the Federal Reserve’s latest projections for cutting interest rates next year shook the crypto markets, some of the aforementioned reasons for optimism remain on the table—though if the Fed slows its rate-cutting campaign, experts say, Treasury yields could remain elevated, shifting investors away from bitcoin and other risk assets.

That’s why some analysts are still bullish on bitcoin—but warn of volatility ahead.

Analysts See More Room to Run for Bitcoin

Prior to the Fed meeting shock, digital asset manager Bitwise’s predictions for 2025 pegged bitcoin rising above $200,000 for the first time. That number rises to $500,000 if the federal government adopts Sen. Cynthia Lummis’ plan of buying 1 million bitcoin for a “strategic bitcoin reserve.”

President-elect Trump has also supported the idea of a bitcoin reserve, but there is little clarity on how much bitcoin the government could hold, whether it would add to its existing holdings or what the purpose of such a reserve would be.

Standard Chartered analysts have a similar price expectation for bitcoin, and align with Bitwise on projecting that inflows for spot bitcoin ETFs in 2025 will remain similar to levels seen this year. These funds hold bitcoin as the underlying security and need to purchase it as investors pour money into them. So far this year, bitcoin ETFs have seen net inflows of more than $35 billion, according to data from Farside Investors.

Analysts are VanEck are also bullish, but less so. They expect bitcoin prices to reach a high of $180,000 in 2025 with volatility galore: They see bitcoin prices falling by 30% after touching new highs earlier in the year, followed by a period of consolidation during the summer and a peak toward year-end.

And Gene Munster’s Deepwater Asset Management earlier this month predicted bitcoin hitting $150,000 in 2025, saying that “ripe market and regulatory conditions will send Bitcoin to new highs in 2025, with likely pullbacks occurring before its peak.”

For now, bitcoin trades around $96,000, with the total market cap of cryptocurrency estimated at around $3.3 trillion.

This article was first published on Dec. 23, 2024. It has been updated to reflect updated price information and to add the Deepwater prediction.