Standard Chartered analysts raise Ethereum year-end price target to $7,500 amid corporate treasury and spot ETF demand

Standard Chartered analysts raised their Ethereum price targets sharply on Wednesday, arguing the backdrop for the world’s second-largest crypto asset has “improved dramatically” thanks to aggressive buying by corporate treasuries, exchange-traded funds, new U.S. stablecoin rules, and renewed technical roadmap momentum.

The firm’s analysts now forecast Ethereum at $7,500 by year-end, up from $4,000, and $25,000 by the end of 2028, up from the previous $7,500 target.

“We now see ETH at USD 7,500 by end-2025 (USD 4,000 prior) and USD 25,000 by end-2028 (USD 7,500),” the firm’s analysts wrote.

Geoffrey Kendrick, the firm’s Head of Digital Assets Research, expects ETH to surpass its prior all-time high of $4,866 by the end of Q3.

The catalysts

In a report shared with The Block, Kendrick says ETH treasury companies and spot ETFs have purchased roughly 3.8% of all ether in circulation since early June. That’s almost double” the fastest comparable pace seen in Bitcoin from similar buyers.

Standard Chartered estimates Ethereum treasury firms alone, like Bitmine Immersion and SharpLink Gaming, acquired roughly 2.3 million ETH, or about 1.9% of supply, over two and a half months. ETFs contributed the remainder, Kendrick notes, while he also sees Ether extending its recent outperformance over BTC. ETH is up over 41% year-to-date, compared to BTC’s 29% rise since January, according to The Block’s price page.

Another pillar is policy. The GENIUS Act, signed in July by President Trump, which cleared a federal framework for stablecoins, should funnel activity to Ethereum because more than half of all stablecoins reside on its rails, and stablecoins already account for about 40% of all blockchain fees, according to Standard Chartered’s Kendrick.

The bank, like U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, projects stablecoin market value could reach $2 trillion by the end of 2028, boosting both direct fee revenue on Ethereum and indirect activity across decentralized finance, where about 65% of total value locked sits on ETH today, The Block’s data dashboard shows. Also, Most U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins circulate on Ethereum, totaling more than $131 billion of the $254 billion market.

On the tech front, the note points to increased engagement by the Ethereum Foundation and ecosystem contributors—including plans to expand base layer throughput—to support a design in which higher-value transactions settle on Layer 1 and high-throughput flows migrate to Layer 2s such as Base and Arbitrum. That mix, the bank says, strengthens the long-run case for Ethereum to capture a larger share of real-world financial activity, a bullish stimulant for price action.

Standard Chartered has been vocal on its dedicated ETH treasury thesis, arguing in prior commentary that public-company balance sheets, institutional spot products, and policy clarity can make Ether “very investable” for traditional allocators. It even argued that digital asset treasury firms could be more attractive than U.S. spot ETH ETFs. The latest upgraded outlook formalizes that view into explicit price targets and quantifies a demand shock driven by treasuries and ETFs that, if sustained, could keep supply tight into year-end.

Additionally, the bank’s updated ETH price path shows $12,000 by late 2026, $18,000 for 2027, and $25,000 for both 2028 and 2029, while its BTC track remains at $200,000 by end-2025, rising to $500,000 by 2028–29.

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