Ether Could Hit $8K by End of 2026: Standard Chartered
Emerging uses for the Ethereum network in gaming and tokenization are among the drivers of what could be a 5X gain in ether's price over the next three years, said the bank.
The price of ether (ETH) has the potential to reach $8,000 by the end of 2026 versus its current level just below $1,,600, writes Geoff Kendrick, Head of FX Research, West, and Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered Bank.
While Ethereum's dominant uses currently are non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi), said Kendrick, an evolution towards gaming and tokenization should add "significant demand."
"Importantly, this should provide ‘proof of concept’ examples in which real-world industries come on-chain to exploit the benefits of Ethereum over their existing setups," he added. "We expect significant developments on these fronts by 2025-26."
In the shorter term, said Kendrick, the bitcoin (BTC) halving in April 2024 "should help lift all boats," and he sees ether hitting $4,000 by the end of next year.
Looking even longer into the future, Kendrick sees the $8,000 level as "a stepping stone" to the bank's "structural" valuation estimate of $26,000-$35,000.
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2023/10/11/ether-could-hit-8k-by-end-of-2026-standard-chartered/
BTC LATE 2017 ATH: +/- $19,500
BTC LATE 2021 ATH: +/- $68,700
68,700 / 19,500 = 3.52
ETH EARLY 2018 ATH: +/- $1,350
ETH LATE 2021 ATH: +/- $4,896
4,896 / 1,350 = 3.62
Both BTC and ETH had a +/- 3.5x increase between bull market tops. If we assume another 3.5x move for BTC and 3.62 move for ETH from the last top we get:
BTC LATE 2025 ATH: +/- $240,450
ETH LATE 2025 ATH: +/- $17,700
I personally would like to see ETH @ $20,000, or 1/12 of BTC. This would place ETH at +/- BTC's ATH price in 2017. Many thought ETH would have reached that price in 2021/2022, placing ETH one cycle behind BTC. I know it's not that simple. BTC and ETH have different supplies, and there are many other factors affecting the market caps.
In a bull market, ETH will burn at a much faster rate, which could push the price even higher.
There's also the issue of diminishing returns. And the uncertainty of the dollar, legislation, wars, etc.
BTC went 20x from the 2014 to 2017 ATH tops. And ETH did a 1350X from 2015 to 2018 - lol!
These numbers I posted could all be bullshit. Who knows what it's going to do - haha! What if the USA declares owning crypto illegal as they did with Gold during the Great Depression? They offer a buyout. Then once they have horded most of the crypto, they allow the public to get back into it. This all happened before with Gold.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102Executive Order 6102 is an executive order signed on April 5, 1933, by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt "forbidding the hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States." The executive order was made under the authority of the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, as amended by the Emergency Banking Act in March 1933.
The limitation on gold ownership in the United States was repealed after President Gerald Ford signed a bill legalizing private ownership of gold coins, bars, and certificates by an Act of Congress, codified in Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 93–373,[1] which went into effect December 31, 1974.
Rationale
The stated reason for the order was that hard times had caused "hoarding" of gold, stalling economic growth and worsening the depression as the US was then using the gold standard for its currency.[2][3]
