Standard Chartered Takes More Bullish Stance On Ethereum Than Bitcoin, Predicts ETH At $35,000

Ethereum is highly likely to increase 10x from its current price range compared to Bitcoin’s likelihood of increasing by only 3x, according to a new crypto report by European international banking giant Standard Chartered.

The report puts Standard Chartered’s valuation of Ethereum between $26,000 and $35,000 and bitcoin between $50,000 and $175,000.

Led by Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank’s global research team said that the more bullish sentiment on ETH stems from the Ethereum ecosystem’s extensive functionality as a financial market.

This allows Ethereum to support core financial transactions akin to banking like lending and insurance as well as the development of marketplaces for currencies and commodities.

Meanwhile, bitcoin only serves the primary role of a currency, which places Ethereum in a better position to broaden its use cases. In addition to easily increasing 10 times from its current price slightly below $3,600, the team believes that Ethereum will also catch up and surpass bitcoin over time.

How the Bank Arrived At the ETH Vs BTC Valuation

For Bitcoin, its role as a currency has been compared to that of the global credit card market capitalization, against the expected transactions from the unbanked sector that BTC will add to the global economy.

Standard Chartered, however, compared the value of Ethereum to that of global banks. Therefore Ether’s global banks’ valuation becomes higher than that of bitcoin’s global credit-card companies valuation.

The bank pointed out that its Ether valuation might appear outrageous because it excludes the two primary factors that are holding Ethereum down at its current price around $3,500:

“The current price reflects both the relative complexity of ETH (versus BTC) and the uncertainty around ETH’s development.”

This uncertainty around its development and the fact that the majority of people perceive Ethereum as complex raises the risk for Ethereum investors, the report added.

“In other words, while the potential returns may be greater for ETH than for BTC, risks are also higher.”

The new report also precedes an upcoming launch of a crypto trading venture by Standard Chartered intended for institutional clients in Europe. During the announcement in June 2021, the bank said that the new platform will allow its targeted clients to trade bitcoin, ether, and other digital assets.

Standard Chartered Leads 100 of the World’s Biggest Banks in Crypto Investments

An August publication by Blockdata stated that Standard Chartered has invested $380 million in crypto ventures. This makes it the leading bank among the top 100 largest banks in the world with the biggest investment in the cryptocurrency industry.

The research also said that over 50% of the 100 biggest banking institutions in the world have invested in cryptocurrency-based projects.

“Out of the top 100 banks by assets under management, 55 have invested in cryptocurrency and/or blockchain-related companies. Either directly, or through subsidiaries.”