Citi Goes Brrr: Bank Ups Bitcoin Target by $31K, Sees $5B Trickling In, Not Pouring 🚀

Citigroup raised its 12-month Bitcoin price forecast to $113,000 from $82,000 on October 1, a $31,000 increase, while lifting its Ethereum target to $3,028 from $2,240, representing rises of roughly 35% and 12% respectively based on current prices of about $84,400 for $BTC and $2,700 for $ETH. The bank cited stronger activity across crypto markets, a supportive macro backdrop and the return of ETF inflows, with Citi expecting "slower but stickier" inflows of about $5 billion over the next 12 months as advisers and brokerages gradually raise their Bitcoin allocations rather than committing in a single surge. Bitcoin was trading near $84,400, up roughly 1% on the day, after briefly touching above $85,000 following cooler-than-expected PCE data before settling back, with the asset having gained nearly 40% over the three months through October 1 and narrowing its year-to-date loss to about 4%, while Ethereum rose approximately 68% over the same period, cutting its year-to-date decline to roughly 9%.

Citi's note also addressed regulatory developments, noting that the Senate's failure to advance the Clarity Act last month had "narrowed the path to a market-structure bill," while subsequent Securities and Exchange Commission rule announcements served as "a temporary but meaningful positive." The bank added, "At this stage of the electoral cycle stage, rulemaking clarity may substitute for a durable Clarity Act," while flagging that "we see risk that a 2028 administration change could roll back agency-promulgated rules, albeit this concern lies outside our forecast horizon." The revised Bitcoin target remains roughly 10% below the asset's all-time high of about $126,200 set in October 2025, leaving a gap even if the call proves accurate.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have taken in money for nine straight sessions, pulling in about $3.08 billion from September 17, narrowly beating August's nine-day run, with the week to September 25 drawing $2.4 billion, the funds' biggest since October 2025. Daily inflows eased to $66.19 million on September 29, according to Decrypt's Bitcoin ETF tracker, while spot Bitcoin ETFs ended the twelve months to September with a small net outflow per SoSoValue, including six negative months and $4.51 billion leaving in June alone. Year-to-date inflows for 2026 stand at approximately $880 million, against $21.37 billion across 2025, with Citi noting that Bitcoin's recovery traces to August 19 when the U.S. Treasury said it would double longer-dated bond buybacks to at least $4 billion per operation.