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Ether in Structural Decline, Year-End Price Target Slashed to $4K: Standard Chartered
Layer 2 blockchains were meant to improve scalability on the Ethereum network, but Coinbase's Base has reduced ether's market cap by $50 billion, the report said.
Mar 17, 2025, 1:18 p.m. 2 min read
What to know:
- Standard Chartered cut its year-end 2025 ether target to $4,000 from $10,000.
- Layer 2 blockchains such as Coinbase's Base have reduced ether's market cap.
- Ether is expected to recover from current levels, but will continue to underperform, the report said.
Ether's (ETH) structural decline is expected to continue, investment bank Standard Chartered (STAN) said in a research report Monday slashing its 2025 year-end price target for the world's second largest cryptocurrency.
Standard Chartered said it now sees ether at $4,000 at the end of the year, down from $10,000 previously. Ether was trading around $1,903 at publication time.
"Ether is at a crossroads," the report said, and while it "still dominates on several metrics," this dominance has been falling for some time.
Layer 2 blockchains were meant to improve scalability on the Ethereum blockchain, but Standard Chartered estimates that Coinbase's (COIN) Base has reduced ether's market cap by $50 billion, and said it expects this trend to continue.
Market forces could eventually stop this structural decline, "especially if tokenized real-world assets were to grow significantly," as "ETH's security dominance means it should maintain its 80% share of this market," wrote Geoff Kendrick, head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered.
Still, "Only a proactive change of commercial direction from the Ethereum Foundation – such as taxing layer 2s – could achieve that now," which the bank said was unlikely.
Standard Chartered said its expects the ETH/BTC ratio to decline to 0.015 by year-end 2027, the lowest level since 2017.
The bank still sees a recovery in the ether price from the current level around $1,900, as a rally in bitcoin is expected to lift all digital assets, but the cryptocurrency's underperformance will continue.
Read more: Ether Has Underperformed, but Total Value Locked on Ethereum Is Rising: Citi
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