Global banking giant Standard Chartered has issued a bullish outlook for Ethereum (ETH), declaring that 2026 will be the "year of Ethereum." Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank's Global Head of Digital Assets Research, made the statement in a note accompanying its latest digital assets report, drawing a parallel to Ethereum's strong performance in 2021.
Despite trimming near-term price forecasts due to broader crypto market weakness, Kendrick expects Ethereum to "outperform significantly" relative to other cryptocurrencies. The bank now forecasts ETH to end 2026 at $7,500, a significant reduction from its previous $12,000 estimate. For 2027 and 2028, targets were lowered to $15,000 and $22,000, respectively.
However, Standard Chartered raised its longer-term outlook, introducing a $30,000 year-end target for 2029 and a new $40,000 target for 2030. The bank argued that while weaker-than-expected Bitcoin performance has dampened the broader digital asset sector, Ethereum's relative drivers have strengthened.
The bullish thesis rests on several pillars: Ethereum's dominant market position in stablecoins, real-world assets (RWAs), and decentralized finance (DeFi); continued institutional buying, such as from BitMine Immersion, which now holds about 3.4% of ETH in circulation; and strong network fundamentals, with transaction counts reaching all-time highs driven largely by stablecoin activity.
The report also highlighted the importance of scaling efforts, including the successful Fusaka upgrade in December, which is part of a new twice-a-year upgrade schedule designed to scale Ethereum into a "trillion-dollar ecosystem." Standard Chartered expects the ETH/BTC ratio to gradually return toward its 2021 high of around 0.08.
Finally, the bank pointed to a potentially more supportive regulatory environment, specifically the proposed U.S. Clarity Act, which it expects to pass in Q1 2026. It suggested that passage of the bill, combined with resilient U.S. equity markets, could help push Bitcoin to a new all-time high in the first half of the year, a scenario that would also underpin Ethereum's longer-term upside.
