Standard Chartered, the British multinational banking giant, is maintaining its prediction that Ethereum (ETH) will reach $8,000 by the end of 2024. The bank is confident that the long-awaited approval of an Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States will happen this week, with a probability of “80% to 90%”.
According to Geoff Kendrick, Head of FX Research and Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered, after the approval of the ETF, there will be a significant influx of 2.39-9.15 million ETH in the first year, equivalent to approximately $15 billion to $45 billion in US dollars.
This prediction aligns with Kendrick’s previous research note in March, where he estimated the inflows of ETH ETFs based on the inflows of Bitcoin ETFs on a market cap-adjusted basis. Since their launch in January, Bitcoin spot ETFs in the US have attracted $12.8 billion in net inflows. Despite facing some outflows in April, they have since recovered.
The recent announcement from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) urging exchanges to update their applications for listing Ether spot ETFs has given a boost to Bitcoin’s price and ETF flows. This new development suggests that the SEC may approve these products before the response deadline on May 23. Bloomberg ETF analysts initially gave a 25% chance of approval but increased it to 75% on Monday.
Standard Chartered’s optimism regarding the approval of the ETFs is notable, as many other banks have shown little interest in them in recent months. Their bullish outlook extends to both BTC and ETH, with Kendrick stating that he expects Bitcoin to reach $150,000 by the end of 2024, implying a level of $8,000 for Ethereum. He also predicts that the ETH/BTC price ratio will remain at 0.054 until the end of the year. Looking ahead to 2025, Kendrick believes that BTC will reach $200,000 per coin, while ETH will reach $14,000.
In summary, Standard Chartered is confident about the approval of Ethereum ETFs and maintains its prediction of $8,000 for ETH by the end of 2024. The bank also holds a bullish outlook for BTC and ETH, expecting significant price increases for both cryptocurrencies in the coming years.