Citigroup has lifted its 12-month price target for Bitcoin to $113,000 from $82,000, and its Ether target to $3,028 from $2,240, in a Sept. 30 research note that Reuters reported the following day, according to Decrypt. The bank cited stronger crypto market activity, a supportive macro backdrop and the return of exchange-traded fund inflows.
The revision restores a more constructive stance at the Wall Street bank after a year of cuts. News.bitcoin reported that Citi analyst Alex Saunders said the increase “draws from all three components of our process: activity, macro, and ETF flows.” Coinpedia, meanwhile, traced the trajectory behind the new number: Citi began 2026 with a $143,000 target, cut it to $112,000 in March, and lowered it again to $82,000 in July before this week’s upgrade.
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Key facts
- Bitcoin target rises to $113,000 from $82,000; Ether to $3,028 from $2,240 (Decrypt).
- Citi now assumes $5 billion of base-case inflows over 12 months, up from flat (News.bitcoin).
- News.bitcoin put the Bitcoin change at about 37.8% and the Ether change at about 35.2%; Coinpedia said Bitcoin needs roughly 34.8% growth from $83,773 to reach the target.
- Bitcoin traded near $83,900 and Ether near $2,700 at the time of the note, per CoinGecko data cited by Decrypt, while News.bitcoin listed BTC at $84,794 and ETH at $2,703 in its market ticker.
- Bitcoin’s all-time high of about $126,200 was set in October 2025, leaving the new target roughly 10% below that peak (Decrypt).
ETF flows set the tone
The upgrade rests heavily on a turnaround in fund demand. Decrypt reported that spot Bitcoin ETFs ended the twelve months to September with a small net outflow, including $4.51 billion leaving in June alone, but have taken in $880 million across 2026 so far, against $21.37 billion in 2025.
The recent run has been sharper. Bitcoin funds drew $2.39 billion in the week ending Sept. 25, their strongest week since October 2025, with Ether products adding $689.88 million, according to News.bitcoin. That buying carried Bitcoin ETFs to nine straight positive sessions, including $66.19 million on Sept. 29, before Farside Investors data showed $148.7 million in net withdrawals on Sept. 30 — with Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund accounting for $125.6 million of the outflow — ending the streak.
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Regulation and macro in the mix
Citi also weighed the policy backdrop. Decrypt reported the bank said the Clarity Act’s failure in the Senate last month had “narrowed the path to a market-structure bill,” while prompting Securities and Exchange Commission rule announcements that took the edge off negative sentiment. Saunders described those debasement fears and SEC rulemaking as having helped crypto reclaim technical levels, and noted that ETF inflows resumed as prices broke above their 200-day moving averages.
Coinpedia added that Citi flagged a softer dollar and the U.S. Treasury’s longer-dated bond buybacks as supports for the recovery. News.bitcoin tied that element to the Treasury’s move to double longer-dated buybacks to at least $4 billion per operation, and noted Citi warned a change in administration in 2028 could reverse agency rules outside its forecast horizon.
The reports differ on how much of the $5 billion forecast covers spot Bitcoin ETFs specifically versus crypto products more broadly; Decrypt noted the summary of the note did not make that clear. Coinpedia also noted Bitcoin has rebounded nearly 43% over three months and cited a historical October average return of around 14.4%. News.bitcoin put the three-month gains at nearly 40% for Bitcoin and 68% for Ether, with Bitcoin down about 3% for the year and Ether about 9%; Decrypt reported year-to-date losses of roughly 4% and 9% respectively.
Why it matters
The targets matter less as a prediction than as a signal about institutional appetite. A $113,000 call from a global bank gives advisers and brokerages a reference point for gradually raising allocations inside ordinary brokerage accounts, which is where the forecast inflows are expected to come from rather than from a sudden retail wave. The revision still leaves Citi below Bitcoin’s October 2025 record, so the bank is projecting recovery, not a new high.
What to watch
Daily ETF flow data is the most immediate gauge of whether the September recovery holds after the Sept. 30 outflow. Beyond that, any movement on a digital asset market-structure bill in the Senate, and further SEC rulemaking, will shape whether the sentiment shift Citi described persists. This is not financial advice, and crypto markets are volatile and uncertain.
Reported by decrypt.co.
Sources: Decrypt, Coinpedia, News.bitcoin