Standard Chartered Analyst Bullish on Ethereum to $4000
Geoffrey Kendrick, Head of Global Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered, released a report comparing Ethereum's current situation to Amazon after the 2001 internet bubble.
Despite ETH's price dropping about 57% from the August 2025 peak to around $2000, on-chain transaction counts and ETH-denominated TVL are nearing historical highs; Kendrick reiterated target prices of $4000 by the end of 2026 and $40,000 by the end of 2030.
Market mechanisms show institutional investors and long-term capital accelerating their purchases of ETH and Ethereum ecosystem assets; event-driven funds are shifting from short-term price panic to fundamental-driven allocations; Ethereum stablecoins, RWA, and DeFi participants benefit, while short-term ETH bears and high-leverage traders are under pressure.
Source: Public Information
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Geoffrey Kendrick has previously tracked crypto assets at Standard Chartered and has released multiple institutional-level reports on Ethereum and Bitcoin between 2023-2025. Throughout his career, he has often used Amazon-style fundamental and price divergence frameworks to make bullish arguments during market downturns, showing a preference for cyclical resilience.
In terms of capital flow, Standard Chartered is mobilizing institutional client funds through research reports, shifting resources from Bitcoin-dominated allocations to Ethereum stablecoins and RWA sectors, attracting long-term capital inflows by emphasizing on-chain activity, while also reserving client and narrative advantages for the bank's own digital asset service business.
Similar to how Amazon gradually established dominance in e-commerce infrastructure after 2001, and the rise of DeFi in Ethereum after the 2018-2020 bear market; Ethereum is currently in an expansion phase transitioning from a price-driven narrative to a stablecoin and RWA infrastructure focus.
Essentially, this represents a transfer of pricing power; with the dominance of stablecoins (54% deployment) and RWA (62% carrying), Ethereum is shifting the pricing power of on-chain economic activities from speculative assets to practical infrastructure. The mechanism is that the market capitalization of stablecoins is expected to grow sixfold by 2028, with RWA having a 50-fold growth potential, driving ETH value to converge with actual use value.
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After a price bubble bursts, true winners rely on on-chain fundamentals rather than short-term narratives. When fundamentals continue to improve, the longer the price divergence, the stronger the subsequent catch-up momentum. The victory of infrastructure is never about today's price, but about irreplaceability a decade later.