Standard Chartered Predicts Ethereum Will Hit $35K, Catch Up With Bitcoin's Market Cap: Report

A new report from Standard Chartered SCBFF makes a case for Ethereum’s ETH/USD market cap catching up with that of Bitcoin BTC/USD.

The Fine Print: “Structurally, we ‘value’ Ethereum at USD 26,000-35,000,” said the British banking giant in its latest research report on crypto assets.

In order for ETH to get there, Bitcoin would need to trade at the top of Standard Chartered’s estimated “valuation range” of around $175,000, the bank said. 

“We see the Ethereum-Bitcoin cross doubling to 0.161, a level at which ETH’s market cap would catch up to BTC’s,” the Standard Chartered report said. 

The logic underpinning the bank’s valuation estimates for Ethereum comes from likening the second-largest cryptocurrency to “a financial market in which non-linear financial transactions such as lending, insurance, and exchanges can operate.”

This is opposed to the logic applied to Bitcoin, which Standard Chartered considers to be most akin to a currency.

Based on the financial market vs. currency analogy, the bank arrived at $35,000 as a potential value for ETH — a figure that is around 10 times its current value.

Using another approach, Standard Chartered found that an optimal allocation to crypto was around 2% of global portfolios.

“Given the broader value case for ETH compared to BTC, we believe that ETH’s total market cap will catch up to BTC’s over time.”

The bank also pointed to Ethereum’s ongoing transition to ETH 2.0 as a factor that would work in its favor by increasing scalability, reducing environmental concerns and decreasing its net supply.

“Given these factors, we think ETH is a better buy over the medium term than BTC,” said Standard Chartered.

Price Action: At press time, Bitcoin was trading at $51,000 after gaining just 0.03% over the past 24-hours. Ethereum was down by 2.87% over the same period and changed hands at a price of $3,700 at the time of writing.