Markets, Ether, Ethereum, Standard Chartered Bank, Analysts Layer 2 blockchains had been meant to enhance scalability on the Ethereum community, however Coinbase’s Base has decreased ether’s market cap by $50 billion, the report mentioned.
Ether’s (ETH) structural decline is predicted to proceed, funding financial institution Standard Chartered (STAN) mentioned in a analysis report Monday slashing its 2025 year-end worth goal for the world’s second largest cryptocurrency.
Standard Chartered mentioned it now sees ether at $4,000 on the finish of the yr, down from $10,000 beforehand. Ether was buying and selling round $1,903 at publication time.
“Ether is at a crossroads,” the report mentioned, and whereas it “still dominates on several metrics,” this dominance has been falling for a while.
Layer 2 blockchains had been meant to enhance scalability on the Ethereum blockchain, however Standard Chartered estimates that Coinbase’s (COIN) Base has decreased ether’s market cap by $50 billion, and mentioned it expects this pattern to proceed.
Market forces might finally cease 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 belongings analysis 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 financial institution mentioned was unlikely.
Standard Chartered mentioned its expects the ETH/BTC ratio to say no to 0.015 by year-end 2027, the bottom stage since 2017.
The financial institution nonetheless sees a restoration within the ether worth from the present stage round $1,900, as a rally in bitcoin (BTC) is predicted to raise all digital belongings, however the cryptocurrency’s underperformance will proceed.
Read extra: Ether Has Underperformed, but Total Value Locked on Ethereum Is Rising: Citi
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