StanChart says Ethereum price will catch up to bullish internal metrics

Standard Chartered says Ethereum’s web enactment remains adjacent to grounds levels adjacent arsenic Ether (ETH) trades acold beneath past year’s highs, arguing that the spread betwixt usage and terms could yet narrow.

Ethereum’s interior metrics, including transaction counts and full worth locked successful ETH terms, stay adjacent to grounds levels, according to a Thursday study from Standard Chartered’s integer assets probe team. ETH has fallen astir 57% from its August 2025 highest of supra $4,800 to nether $2,000 astatine the clip of writing, according to Coingecko data.

StanChart's planetary caput of integer assets research, Geoff Kendrick, reaffirmed its terms targets of $4,000 by the extremity of 2026 and $40,000 by 2030, implying a instrumentality of the ETH/BTC ratio to its 2021 highs astir 0.08.

The telephone comes arsenic investors statement whether Ethereum’s increasing dominance successful stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets volition yet construe into stronger returns for ETH itself, contempt persistent ETF outflows and anemic terms performance.

Kendrick likened the existent disconnect to Amazon during the dot-com bust, arguing that “everything wrong the institution was going the close way” adjacent arsenic the banal terms slumped.

ETH terms implicit the past year. Source: Coingecko

Max Shannon, elder probe subordinate Europe astatine Bitwise, agreed with Standard Chartered's Amazon analogy, telling Cointelegraph it relates to Ethereum's “lack of narrative” and “lack of worth accrual from inexpensive layer-1 and later-2 transactions.”

He said worth accrual tin amended arsenic onchain assets and their velocity turn and arsenic users wage higher state fees for premium services specified arsenic zero-knowledge transactions, pre-confirmations, maximal extractable value, and ample organization trades.

Ethereum main colony furniture for stablecoins and RWAs

The study highlights Ethereum’s relation arsenic the main colony furniture for stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets, projecting that stablecoin marketplace capitalization volition turn sixfold to astir $2 trillion by 2028 and tokenized non-stablecoin assets volition grow 50-fold to a akin size, with Ethereum presently hosting astir fractional to two-thirds of each market.

Related: Ethereum treasury firms thin connected staking arsenic ETF unit builds: Report

Transactions connected Ethereum reached an all-time precocious of much than 3.6 cardinal connected April 28 and person since dropped to astir 2.2 cardinal connected Thursday, according to Etherscan. Total worth locked successful decentralized concern has dropped from astir $97 cardinal successful August to $41.65 cardinal connected May 27, according to data from DeFiLlama.

Ethereum transactions per day, each time. Source: Etherscan

Justin d'Anethan, caput of probe astatine Arctic Digital, a crypto backstage markets advisory firm, told Cointelegraph that it is “heartwarming to spot a accepted slope instrumentality to their thesis,” contempt wide disappointing marketplace sentiment. He said that, successful crypto, terms is “often its ain narrative,” and cardinal worth is “an afterthought.”

Mixed signals crossed the market

Other marketplace signals are much nuanced. Bitmine Immersion Technologies, the largest nationalist purchaser of ETH by far, presently owning implicit 5,300,000 ETH, doubled down connected its expectations of a supercycle this week, citing Wall Street’s involvement successful tokenization and artificial intelligence-powered agents.

ETH ETF outflows deed 11th consecutive day. Source: Farside Investors

That optimism contrasts with a wave of departures from the Ethereum Foundation and public skepticism from immoderate long-time Ethereum commentators implicit however overmuch of the network’s maturation volition yet accrue to ETH itself.

US spot ETH exchange-traded funds adhd different furniture to the picture. Farside ETH ETF information shows the products posted a $67.1 cardinal nett outflow connected May 27, marking 11 consecutive days of withdrawals, adjacent aft seeing stronger inflow sessions earlier successful the year.

D'Anethan said the question remains whether Ethereum's tailwinds volition outpace Bitcoin's successful the agelong term, pointing retired that erstwhile cycles successful which altcoins outperformed BTC nary longer hold. “It'll beryllium absorbing to spot wherever ample trading firms, institutions, sovereign funds and nation-states yet spot their bets,” helium said.

Shannon said that Biwise's Factor Model shows the momentum has mostly been driven by Bitcoin and that astir 80% of ETH terms saltation tin beryllium explained by BTC. “Macro, equities and cardinal drivers specified arsenic progressive addresses person each taken a backmost seat,” helium said.

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