Standard Chartered Has A $35,000 Target For Ethereum, Here’s Why
Institutional investors have begun to play with the idea of Ethereum surging due to its financial market growth. Analysts at Standard Chartered see Ethereum’s growth overtaking Bitcoin’s, predicting a future value of $35,000 for ETH.
While the Bitcoin or Ethereum debate rages on between early investors and maxis, London-based bank Standard Chartered has taken a bullish stand on Ethereum. ETH now has more attention, thanks to the London fork, a recent innovation on the blockchain. The network records that up to date, almost 263,000 tokens burned with 7,500,000 locked in ETH 2.0 deposit contracts. Some analysts now predict a huge surprise in the future.
The bank, in a recent research note, said Ethereum could outperform Bitcoin over the next few years, even stating it ‘structurally’ values the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap at over $35,000.
British banking giant sees Ethereum as a financial market filled with different services for users. The Network is a platform for lending, interest-earning on investments, and others. Furthermore, the report explained the possibility of Ethereum matching up to Bitcoin’s market cap through such utility.
The report stated:
“Structurally, we value Ethereum at USD 26,000-35,000…We see the Ethereum-Bitcoin cross doubling to 0.161, a level at which ETH’s market cap would catch up to BTC’s.
Akin to being a currency like Bitcoin, it (Ethereum) is more akin to a financial market in which non-linear financial transactions such as lending, insurance, and exchanges can operate.”
The multinational financial service firm explains that the target represents a 1000% increase from the present price levels. It envisages that Ethereum will gather a market cap of about $4 trillion with ETH at $35,000. However, this will depend on the impact of deflation of its EIP-1559 update.
Ethereum to decline before climbing to higher levels
Despite of its great potentials, Ethereum doesn’t seem to have a bullish appearance on a short-term basis.
From the Tom DeMark (TD) Sequential indicator, Ethereum’s daily chart highlights a sell signal. The bearish formation was built as a green nine candlestick. When a pointer of 1 to 4 daily candlesticks correction that precedes the uptrend resumptions.
Validation through a daily close below the $3,800 benchmark level, ETH is likely to swing towards the 61.8% or 50% Fibonacci retracement level. Such important demand barriers levels at $3,350 and $3,050, respectively.
However, Ethereum dropped to $3,350 that shows a 15% reduction due to the volatility of the crypto market. Similarly, Bitcoin plummeted by over 10% even as other digital assets dipped by up to 20% or more.
It can only take a daily candlestick close beyond $4,030 of the recent high level to disrupt the bearish thesis. By satisfying such conditions, Ethereum will indicate a kick-off of a bull race towards the 127.2% Fibonacci retracement mark at $5,115.
Financial institutions‘ growing interest in ETH
Ethereum has grown from its early ‘sound money’ narrative to an ecosystem that spans Web3 dApps, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), smart contract-based financial services, decentralized finance (DeFi), and much more.
The upcoming ETH 2.0 upgrade further bolsters Ethereum’s position in the crypto market—moving it from a ‘proof-of-work’ mechanism to a ‘proof-of-stake’ consensus design. This sees it become a more environmentally friendly blockchain in the coming years—a narrative that would help parlay the negative press plaguing Bitcoin over the past year (for its supposedly climate-damaging nature).
It’s a shift that even Standard Chartered pointed out:
“The shift has obvious environmental advantages,” the researchers wrote, adding “It removes the need for excessive computer power to be used in ‘mining.’ The switch from [proof-of-work (PoW)] to [proof-of-stake (PoS)] is expected to be gradually phased in during H1 2022.”
Meanwhile, Standard Chartered did point out that other ecosystems apart from Ethereum existed and could rival Ethereum. “Separate ecosystems already exist and may continue to challenge Ethereum in niche areas…Moreover, “regulatory concerns related to Ethereum will be very different to those than Bitcoin,” the researchers wrote.
“While potential returns may be greater for ETH than for BTC, risks are also higher,” they ended.
