Citigroup raised its 12-month price target for Bitcoin to $113,000 from $82,000 and its target for Ether to $3,028 from $2,240 in a research note dated Wednesday.
The bank cited stronger crypto market activity, a supportive macroeconomic backdrop, and an expected resumption of exchange-traded fund inflows as the main drivers of the revision.
As of 10:50 AM UTC, October 1, 2026, Bitcoin was trading near $84,100, leaving the new target roughly 35% above spot levels, as per CoinGecko data. The revision follows a sharp recovery in digital assets over the past quarter and reverses a more cautious stance the same brokerage took earlier in the year.
Citi Lifts Targets on Expected ETF Inflows
In the note—reshared by Reuters—Citigroup said it expects crypto inflows to resume at a slower but steadier pace as advisers and brokerages gradually increase allocations to Bitcoin. The firm forecast $5 billion of inflows over the next 12 months. That assumption marks a clear change from July, when the bank cut its 12-month Bitcoin target to $82,000 from $112,000 and reduced its expected ETF inflow figure to zero from $10 billion, citing negative fund flows and stalled U.S. legislation.
The October note does not project an immediate surge in demand. Instead, it frames the path higher as dependent on a gradual rebuild of institutional allocations rather than a single large wave of buying. Ether’s target was raised by a similar proportion, moving from $2,240 to $3,028, on the same combination of activity and macro conditions.
Bitcoin and Ether have each rallied nearly 40% and 68%, respectively, over the past three months, narrowing their year-to-date losses to about 4% and 9%, Reuters reported. After lagging broader risk assets for much of the year, Bitcoin has risen 40% from its July lows. The bank linked part of that recovery to a softer dollar following the U.S. Treasury’s recent move to buy back longer-dated bonds, which helped revive momentum across crypto markets.
Regulatory Setbacks and Market Recovery
The note also addressed the legislative backdrop. The U.S. Senate failed last month to advance the Clarity Act, a bill aimed at creating a regulatory framework for digital assets. Citigroup said the failure “narrowed the path to a market-structure bill, yet spurred Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule announcements that dampened negative sentiment,” according to the Reuters account of the note.
The bank’s earlier cuts in March and July had pointed to the same legislative delays as a constraint on ETF-driven demand. The October revision treats the subsequent SEC actions as having limited the downside from the stalled bill, even while the broader market-structure path remains narrower. Spot Bitcoin funds had seen large outflows in mid-September around the failed Senate vote and a Federal Reserve rate decision, before later sessions recorded substantial creations that helped lift prices back through the mid-$80,000s.
The recovery has not been uniform. Bitcoin touched levels above $87,000 in late September before pulling back toward the low $83,000s by the start of October, after a period that included more than $2 billion in ETF inflows across several sessions. Year-to-date performance remains modestly negative, and the asset is still well below its October 2025 peak near $126,000. The new Citi target therefore sits inside a range that the market has already visited within the past year, rather than implying a move into uncharted territory.
Broader Institutional Context
Citigroup’s adjustment sits alongside a wider pattern of Wall Street research that has repeatedly revised crypto forecasts as ETF flows and legislative timelines have shifted. The bank’s own path this year—from a March cut, to a July reduction that assumed zero net inflows, to the current $113,000 figure that again assumes positive but modest flows—illustrates how sensitive those models remain to fund-creation data and policy headlines.
The $5 billion inflow assumption over 12 months is substantially smaller than the multi-billion-dollar weekly or multi-week totals recorded during stronger periods earlier in 2025 and again in parts of August and September 2026. It is consistent with the bank’s description of a slower, steadier pace rather than a return to peak demand. Advisers and brokerages are expected to increase allocations gradually, which, if realized, would support prices without requiring a sudden reallocation of large institutional pools.
Macro conditions cited in the note remain mixed. A softer dollar tied to Treasury buybacks of longer-dated bonds has coincided with the recent crypto rebound, yet longer-term yields have stayed elevated. The bank’s framework treats the combination of resumed, if limited, ETF inflows and the absence of further sharp negative sentiment from the Clarity Act setback as sufficient to justify the higher targets, while still leaving room for the slower path it describes.
Whether the $113,000 level is reached will depend on whether the projected inflows materialize and whether the macro backdrop stays supportive. The note itself presents the figure as a 12-month forecast under those conditions, not as a near-term call. Bitcoin’s price on the day of the report remained roughly one-third below the new target, reflecting both the scale of the recovery already recorded since July and the distance still implied by Citigroup’s updated view.
Also read: Bitcoin Price Prediction for October 2026: $40K Bottom Risk Vs Low-$80K Hold
