Standard Chartered has slashed its year-end 2025 price target for Ethereum (ETH) from $10,000 to $4,000.
The 60% downward revision for the ETH price target over the next eight or so months comes amid an ongoing market struggle for the leading altcoin.
For Standard Chartered, bears are taking on ETH bulls as the cryptocurrency suffers what the bank’s analysts say is an “Ether midlife crisis.”
Geoff Kendrick, head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, shared the new price forecast in a note on Monday, March 17, 2025.
Earlier, the roaring bulls of 2024, driven by spot exchange-traded funds momentum, had seen Kendrick and others predict a surge to $10,000 in 2025 for Ethereum.
But Kendrick now sees Ethereum’s waning dominance as layer 2 network Base rises as one of the factors pulling ETH lower.
STANDARD CHARTERED BANK CHANGES END OF 2025 PRICE TARGET FOR $ETH FROM $10K TO $4K
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While Ethereum catalyzed the decentralized finance (DeFi), smart contracts and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) explosion in recent years, the entry of new challengers means dominance is decreasing.
Other than Solana and other layer-1 networks, as well as L2s, are eating into the top altcoin’s market share.
“Ethereum’s dominance has softened across multiple domains where it once reigned supreme,” Kendrick wrote in the note.
This lack of a decisive edge, particularly in transaction speed and cost-effectiveness, means Ethereum’s robust ecosystem and appeal to institutional investors has suffered some incursion. Prices reflect part of this. Furthermore, ETH is underperforming Bitcoin.
Ether’s forecast target for the year is somewhat still optimistic given the altcoin currently trades just above $1,900. It means the current price at $1.9k would represent a more than 100% spike for ETH if bulls reach $4k.
What could help Ether price?
A resurgence in demand and interest in Ethereum spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will be key.
This will also be the case if there’s further regulatory clarity. But more than a resurgence is what Ethereum needs, with real-world asset tokenization a crucial element.
Offloading ETH and shorting it have hit headlines in recent weeks.
However, that also includes a whale wallet dormant for about three years selling all of their 1,014.67 ETH. This netted the holder $1.92 million.
However, it only added to $126k in profit, according to data blockchain intelligence firm Arkham. Lookonchain shared the details on X.
A wallet just sold all 1,014.67 $ETH($1.92M) after being dormant for 3 years, with a profit of only $126K.
This wallet bought 1,014.67 $ETH($1.8M) at an average price of $1,771 and held it for 3 years, with an unrealized profit of $2.3M at peak.
intel.arkm.com/explorer/addre…
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Standard Chartered expects Bitcoin to hit $500k
While Standard Chartered is less optimistic about the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, the outlook is more rosy for Bitcoin (BTC).
The analysts say institutional vibes around BTC, helped by the United States’ creation of a strategic bitcoin reserve, could see the flagship digital asset hit $500k.
Doubling down on Bitcoin points to the overall market sentiment, with this perspective gaining momentum amid a pro-crypto US government.
BTC currently trades around $84k. But it hit an all-time high above $109k.
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