$200K BTC Seen as “Conservative” — Bernstein Expects More

• According to Bernstein analysts, predicting that Bitcoin could reach $200,000 in 2025 is setting a limit to the heights Bitcoin could reach.
• At the close of May, BTC achieved its all-time high of $111,000, and it’s currently trading at $109,600 after a marginal increase in the past day.

Bitcoin (BTC) is what we call the headline that doesn’t lose the attention of investors or analysts. As featured in our earlier news story, Raoul Pal, a well-known financial expert, shared a Bitcoin forecast that the cryptocurrency could surpass $140,000 by July 2025. Don Jr. and Eric Trump, the sons of the US President Donald Trump, predict an average of $170k  for BTC by the end of 2026.

Bitcoin ETFs as the Driving Force

Bernstein, an asset management and research firm, has stated that a $200,000 prediction for Bitcoin in 2025 is quite conservative. This means that the firm’s analysts believe that Bitcoin could surge past this. And what is this confidence based on? Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).

The Securities and Exchange Commission approved Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024. For traditional investors, such as those with 401(k)s, pension funds, and even financial advisors, Bitcoin has just become a lot more accessible thanks to ETFs. Leading the charge are BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), which have quickly positioned themselves as front-runners in this growing space.

BlackRock’s IBIT ETF recently made history, becoming the fastest ETF ever to hit $70 billion in assets under management, doing so in just 341 days. So far in 2025, the ETFs have pulled in more than $9 billion in inflows, putting it among the top five ETFs in the U.S.

Meanwhile, institutional interest in Bitcoin isn’t just steady. BlackRock recently added 2,704 BTC to its holdings, worth around $283.9 million, along with 28,239 ETH, valued at roughly $73.2 million. In Japan, Metaplanet made its second-largest Bitcoin purchase ever, acquiring 1,004 BTC for approximately $104.6 million. That brings its total stash to 7,800 BTC.

MicroStrategy (now rebranded as Strategy) continues its accumulation, too. The company recently acquired an additional 1,045 BTC for approximately $110.2 million, averaging roughly $105,426 per coin. Year-to-date, their Bitcoin strategy has returned 17.1%. As of June 8, 2025, their holdings sit at 582,000 BTC.

And in another twist, a new mining company called American Bitcoin, backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., has entered the scene, purchasing at least 215 BTC worth nearly $24 million. This is not limited to institutions.

El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. Citizens can pay taxes and settle debts using BTC. Meanwhile, Hong Kong approved spot BTC and ETH ETFs, signaling federal-level regulatory acceptance within China’s special administrative framework.

In line with what many asset managers have been forecasting, Crypto News Flash recently highlighted another prediction from Bernstein: public companies could invest over $330 billion into Bitcoin by 2029. Of that, $205 billion is expected to come from publicly traded corporations directly, while another $124 billion could flow in from firms that adopt a Bitcoin-heavy capital strategy similar to MicroStrategy’s.

Let’s break down the numbers. The total value of Bitcoin derivatives traded has dropped 32.68%, now sitting at $78.22 billion. Open Interest, which tracks the total number of active Bitcoin derivative contracts, has slipped 2.47%, down to $74.96 billion. Notably, Options Volume has fallen sharply, decreasing 43.86% to $2.83 billion.

Meanwhile, spot trading volume for Bitcoin is also down, falling 12.75% to $52 billion. Despite the slowdown in trading activity, BTC is holding strong above $109,000, showing resilience in a cooling derivatives market.