A new research team from the UK-based multinational banking and financial service anticipates Bitcoin will touch $100,000 early next year

Researchers at Standard Chartered have predicted that Bitcoin will reach $100,000 by early next year with the coin forecast to carry Ether along with it. The team added that they structurally valued Bitcoin at $50,000 to $175,000 with the structural valuation for Ether falling between $26,000 and $35,000.

A report published by the analysts on Tuesday suggests that Bitcoin, which has been trading at around the $50,000 mark in recent days, could potentially rise to $175,000, at which point Ether could reach $35,000. Geoff Kendrick from Standard Chartered says that the halving occurs approximately every four and a half years.

“I think the main driver of the whole asset class is the cyclical nature of the halvings that happen in bitcoin supply where every four and a half years there is a halving of the number of new bitcoins issued,” he noted.

Kendrick, who heads emerging market currency research and crypto research at the bank, reckons that in the short term, Bitcoin could hit $100,000 late this year or early 2021. He adds that along with this predicted valuation, Ether will potentially rise to $15,000 before the middle of next year.

The Standard Chartered team believes that Bitcoin will become the preferred option for peer-to–peer transactions in a cashless society. The lack of variety in Bitcoin’s use cases was also noted by the research team. The analysts stated that Bitcoin’s use is limited to peer-to–peer transactions and as a store-of-value, but Ether’s usability could still allow it to take on the role of financial market.

“ETH serves more as a facilitator of a larger software platform hosting a variety of decentralized applications (dApps) and contracts, which together constitute the Ethereum network. This gives rise to a much wider set of use cases,” the report read.

The researchers also observed that Ethereum would pose greater risks, as the SEC’s regulatory efforts will be used to classify it as an equity in the near future.

“There’s clearly a risk to Ethereum that at some point the SEC will view it as equivalent to equities,” Kendrick told clients.

Standard Chartered is already making inroads into the crypto market. It has earlier this year launched its own exchange and brokerage platform for digital assets.