Standard Chartered Cuts 2026 ETH Target to $4,000

Standard Chartered reduced its end-2026 Ethereum price target to $4,000 from $7,500, a roughly 47% cut, while retaining a $40,000 forecast for 2030. At the time of the note, ether was trading around $1,745, down more than 7% and below a $1,800 support level.

The bank also lowered its end-2026 Bitcoin target to $100,000. The research team framed the revisions as a house-wide repricing rather than changes limited to ether.

Standard Chartered’s digital assets research unit, led by Geoff Kendrick, kept the long-term path for ether intact. The bank’s models show the 2030 projection implies more than 20 times upside from current prices.

Kendrick wrote that the pullback represents a cyclical washout and cited sustained network activity as the basis for the long-term view. He compared ether’s slump to Amazon’s share price fall in the early 2000s, writing: “I view ETH’s performance very much as Jeff Bezos described AMZN share price during the 2001 tech bubble burst.”

On-chain measures cited in the note include transaction counts and total value locked, which the note shows remain near record highs when measured in ETH. The token trades about 65% below its August 2025 peak near $4,946.

Selling pressure has continued in market flows. US spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds recorded a daily net outflow of about $52.94 million, with total ETF net assets near $9.96 billion. Standard Chartered linked a deeper Bitcoin capitulation toward $50,000 to a potential ether bottom near $1,400.

The note also flagged crowded short positioning in ether, which the bank noted could allow for a sharp reversal if price action triggered a short squeeze and ether reclaimed lost ground.

Standard Chartered published the revisions in its regular digital assets research update. The firm adjusted both ether and bitcoin targets to reflect revised near-term expectations while maintaining long-term forecasts based on network usage and adoption trends.