Standard Chartered: MicroStrategy BTC sale could lift ether

MicroStrategy disclosed in a regulatory filing that it sold 32 bitcoin in the final week of May to cover preferred stock dividends. The sale was the firm’s first disposal since 2022 and came from a treasury of about 843,706 BTC. The company reported proceeds of roughly $2.5 million after fees at an average price near $77,135 per coin.

Standard Chartered’s Global Head of Digital Assets Research, Geoffrey Kendrick, wrote that the symbolic breach of MicroStrategy’s long no-sell stance mattered more than the small size of the trade. He projected the ETH‑BTC ratio to rise from about 0.028 to 0.040 by year‑end and set longer-term ether price targets of $4,000 by the end of 2026 and $40,000 by 2030. “I see yesterday as being the start of ETH outperformance v BTC,” Kendrick wrote.

Market prices reacted after the filing. Bitcoin fell nearly 5% to about $67,875 on Tuesday, and MicroStrategy’s stock declined close to 10% across two sessions. On the same day the ETH‑BTC ratio recorded one of its larger intraday increases on a bitcoin down day since early 2024.

Kendrick pointed to staking yields as the structural difference between the two tokens. He noted ether holders can earn an effective yield of roughly 3% by staking, which can reduce pressure to sell tokens to fund operations. Standard Chartered described that as a “treasury math” advantage for ether-backed firms.

Market maker Wintermute reported that some long-term investors began buying bitcoin in over-the-counter tranches at current levels, treating the pullback as attractive on an 18-month horizon. The desk flagged $60,000 to $65,000 as key downside support and said longer-term holders are using time-weighted average price strategies through OTC desks rather than trying to pick a short-term bottom.

Kendrick also noted that multiples of net asset value for other crypto treasury-like issuers such as BitMine and SharpLink have fallen below MicroStrategy’s. He added those metrics could reverse if staking yields compound and capital flows to ether treasuries. Kendrick flagged a forthcoming test of market conviction: whether MicroStrategy follows with a buyback that meaningfully exceeds the 32 BTC sale and whether ether-backed treasury vehicles can sustain higher capital-raising premiums into the second half of the year.

MicroStrategy’s filing did not indicate any broader change to its bitcoin strategy beyond funding preferred dividends. Analysts view the ETH‑BTC ratio as the clearest market indicator for Kendrick’s thesis and will watch whether it maintains upward momentum as investors reassess the relative economics of holding and monetizing protocol-native tokens.