State bank's $250K Bitcoin call
- VTB My Investments, the brokerage arm of Russia’s state-owned VTB Bank, resurfaced a Bitcoin target of $200,000 to $250,000 first aired by adviser Artyom Markin at a VTB forum in October 2025. - Markin said Bitcoin had just cleared $125,000, could reach $150,000 “in the near term,” and then $200,000 to $250,000 “in the midterm,” citing limited supply and roughly 95% mined. - Russia has since widened regulated crypto exposure through bank-issued products and proposed trading rules for qualified investors, even as spot-Bitcoin skepticism persists. (theblock.co)
The $250,000 Bitcoin call making the rounds traces back to VTB My Investments, part of Russia’s state-owned VTB Bank, not a fresh forecast issued this week. (tass.com) (valuethemarkets.com) At a VTB investment forum in Yekaterinburg on October 7, 2025, investment adviser Artyom Markin said Bitcoin could climb to $150,000 in the near term and $200,000 to $250,000 in the midterm. (tass.com) Markin tied that target to supply math. He said Bitcoin issuance is capped at about 20 million coins and roughly 95% had already been mined, leaving demand growth to do more of the price work. (tass.com) That matters because the viral version of the claim can read like a new institutional upgrade. The original statement came after Bitcoin had moved above $125,000, according to TASS’s October 2025 report. (tass.com) Russia’s banking system has also moved closer to crypto-linked products since then. In May 2025, the Bank of Russia said financial institutions could offer qualified investors non-deliverable derivatives and securities tied to cryptocurrency prices. (theblock.co) After that shift, Sberbank said it planned structured bonds with yields linked to crypto prices, and the Moscow Exchange prepared a cash-settled Bitcoin futures contract. (theblock.co) (coindesk.com) By February 2026, Sberbank was preparing crypto-backed corporate loans after piloting a bitcoin-backed loan with mining firm Intelion Data, according to CoinDesk and The Block. (coindesk.com) (theblock.co) The market, though, has not treated the recycled $250,000 headline as consensus. Value The Markets reported on April 25, 2026 that a Polymarket contract on Bitcoin reaching $200,000 by December 31, 2026 implied just 4.9% odds. (valuethemarkets.com) So the story is less about a new VTB note than about an old forum forecast finding a new audience. The number is real, the timing is older, and the market still looks far less certain than the headline. (tass.com) (valuethemarkets.com)
