Ethereum has begun a quiet comeback, despite current price pressures. As ETH price falls below the $1,900 level, moving away from its late 2024 high, Bitcoin continues to perform poorly relative to the current cycle, which Standard Chartered believes is directly in Ethereum’s interest.
Jeffrey Kendrick, head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, told clients this week that Strategy’s disclosure of the sale of 32 bitcoins worth $2.5 million could represent a structural turning point for the ETH/BTC ratio.
On the day of the announcement, Ethereum recorded one of the largest daily outperformances against Bitcoin in recent years, an event that has only happened 23 times since the start of 2024. Kendrick expects the ETH/BTC ratio to rise from 0.028 to 0.04 by the end of the year, meaning relative outperformance for Ethereum of over 40%.
Kendrick aims for the Ethereum price to reach $2,700 in the near term, assuming Bitcoin stabilizes below the $70,000 level, reaching $4,000 by the end of the year, with controversial expectations that it would reach $40,000 by 2030.
Will Ethereum hit $4,000 this year as the ETH/BTC ratio scales?
Ethereum is currently trading below $1,900, 62% below its August high of nearly $5,000. The ETH/BTC ratio stands at around 0.028, down sharply from its highs of 0.042.
Kendrick’s hypothesis is based on a structural argument; Businesses that have Ethereum in their treasury can use “staking” to generate returns that allow them to fund their operations without needing to forcibly sell the currencies. In contrast, companies that own Bitcoin do not have a similar cash flow mechanism, and the sale of Strategy made this obstacle a reality in practice.
Kendrick argues that this promotes a higher adjusted net asset value for Ethereum-based Treasuries and reduces selling pressure on the asset itself. This is a point that the market has not yet fully integrated, which explains the current existence of this opportunity.
For bulls, the aim is to regain the ETH/BTC ratio of 0.04 by Q4, with Ethereum trading towards $4,000 as the pace of real asset (RWA) tokenization accelerates. However, any global risk aversion event could cause both ETH and BTC to fall; Long-term liquidations, similar to recent Bitcoin liquidation waves, could bring Ethereum back below $1,600 and delay recovery until 2026.
Standard Chartered is not alone in highlighting Ethereum’s structural undervaluation; Many analysts have compared the current ETH price discount to the lower phase Amazon experienced after the dot-com bubble, before beginning its historic decade-long upward journey.
Bitcoin Hyper Project Aims for Early Advantage as Ethereum Storage Momentum Grows
The storage returns argument behind Kendrick’s hypothesis for Ethereum reflects a broader shift in the market; Infrastructure that generates intrinsic returns is revalued more quickly than passively held assets. Bitcoin, historically excluded from this dynamic, seems to be evolving.
Traders within the Bitcoin ecosystem are monitoring a project to bring programmable payment infrastructure directly to the Bitcoin network.
The Bitcoin Hyper project is positioned as the first layer 2 of Bitcoin with full integration of the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) engine, providing ultra-high speed and intelligent contract execution on Bitcoin’s security layer faster than the Solana network itself.
The project’s pre-sale raised $32.7 million at the current token price of $0.013681, with staking available at an annual yield of 36% for early participants. Core infrastructure features include a decentralized bridge for Bitcoin transfer, ultra-fast Layer 2 processing, and low-cost transaction execution aimed at addressing Bitcoin’s three limitations: slowness, high fees, and lack of native software features.
The post Standard Chartered Analyst Expects Ethereum to Rally Against Bitcoin appeared first on Cryptonews Arabic.
