Confident ETH will outperform the market! Standard Chartered announces: 2026 is the "Ethereum Year One"

Despite recent headwinds in the cryptocurrency market, Standard Chartered remains bullish on Ethereum, although it has revised down its price targets for the next two years. Geoffrey Kendrick, Head of Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered, still believes 2026 will be a pivotal year for Ethereum, with performance expected to surpass other cryptocurrencies. In an investment note accompanying the report, Geoffrey Kendrick mentioned that as blockchain technology and on-chain products become increasingly popular, Ethereum will have the “significant potential to outperform the market.” He stated, “I believe 2026 will be the ‘Year of Ethereum,’ just as 2021 was spectacular.” 2030 Price Target Rises to 40,000 USD Compared to Bitcoin, Standard Chartered holds a more optimistic view of Ethereum. Although affected by overall market weakness, the bank has revised its Ethereum year-end price target for 2026 from the original $12,000 down to $7,500, and forecasts that in 2027 and 2028, the prices will reach $15,000 and $22,000 respectively, both lower than previous expectations. However, looking further ahead, Standard Chartered is more bullish on Ethereum’s long-term trend, raising its forecast for the end of 2029 to $30,000 and for the end of 2030 to over $40,000. Structural Advantages The report pointed out that Bitcoin’s recent underperformance has indeed dragged down the overall cryptocurrency market. However, Geoffrey Kendrick emphasized that, compared to Bitcoin, the engines driving Ethereum’s rise are more robust and diverse. Standard Chartered expects the “ETH/BTC exchange rate” to gradually rebound to near the highs of 2021 (around 0.08). This upward momentum is driven by Ethereum’s unique competitive advantages: its leadership in stablecoins, real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, DeFi, and ongoing network scalability upgrades. The analysis team noted that despite the slowdown in crypto ETF and institutional capital inflows, the preference for Ethereum remains higher than for Bitcoin. The report highlighted that the world’s largest Ethereum reserve company, Bitmine, currently holds 3.4% of circulating ETH and is steadily moving toward its 5% target, indicating that institutional investors continue to accumulate. Fundamentals Support Standard Chartered reiterated that the stablecoin and RWA tokenization markets are expected to reach a $2 trillion scale by 2028, with Ethereum being the main battleground for this financial revolution. Currently, more than half of stablecoins and RWA tokens are issued on Ethereum, and as traditional financial activities accelerate on-chain, this proportion is expected to continue growing. Fundamental data also supports this view. Benefiting from stablecoin activity (accounting for approximately 35% to 40% of total transaction volume), Ethereum’s recent transaction volumes have repeatedly hit new all-time highs. Standard Chartered emphasized that increasing Layer 1 (mainnet) throughput remains key to Ethereum’s market capitalization growth. Historical experience shows that improvements in network processing capacity often drive market cap expansion.