Standard Chartered says Ethereum network activity remains near record levels even as Ether (ETH) trades well below last year’s highs, arguing that the gap between usage and price may eventually narrow.
According to Thursday’s report from the Standard Chartered research team, Ethereum’s internal metrics, including the number of transactions and total value expressed in ETH, remain near record levels. ETH is down approximately 57% from its August 2025 high of over $4,800 to under $2,000 at the time of writing, According to to Coingecko data.
Global head of digital asset research at StanChart, Geoff Kendrick, reaffirmed his price targets of $4,000 by the end of 2026 and $40,000 by 2030, bringing the ETH/BTC ratio back to 2021 highs of around 0.08.
The call comes as investors debate whether Ethereum’s growing dominance in real-world stablecoins and tokenized assets will ultimately translate into greater gains for ETH itself, despite continued ETF outflows and tender price performance.
Kendrick compared the current blackout to Amazon during the dot-com crash, arguing that “everything was going well for the company” even as the stock price plummeted.
ETH price over the last year. Source: Coingecko
Max Shannon, senior researcher for Europe at Bitwise, agreed with Standard Chartered’s Amazon analogy, telling Cointelegraph that it refers to the “lack of narrative” in Ethereum and the “lack of value accretion from low-cost Layer 1 and Layer 2 transactions.”
He said value accretion could improve as supply chain assets boost and their velocity, and as users pay higher gas fees for premium services such as zero-knowledge transactions, pre-confirmations, maximum extractable value and vast institutional transactions.
Ethereum’s main settlement layer for stablecoins and RWAs
The report highlights Ethereum’s role as the primary settlement level for stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets, projecting that stablecoin market capitalization will grow sixfold to approximately $2 trillion by 2028 and tokenized volatile coin assets will grow 50x to a similar size, with Ethereum currently serving approximately half to two-thirds of each market.
Related: Ethereum Treasury Firms Rely on Staking as Pressure Increases on ETFs: Report
Transactions on Ethereum reached an all-time high of over 3.6 million on April 28 and have since dropped to around 2.2 million on Thursday. According to Etherscan. According to the data, the total value locked in decentralized finance fell from around $97 billion in August to $41.65 billion on May 27. data from DeFiLlama.
Ethereum transactions daily, all the time. Source: Etherscan
Justin d’Anethan, head of research at Arctic Digital, a private market cryptocurrency advisory firm, told Cointelegraph that it’s “reassuring to see a traditional bank sticking to its thesis” despite overall disappointing market sentiment. He said that in cryptocurrencies, the price “often is its own narrative” and the underlying value is “an afterthought.”
Mixed signals in the market
Other market signals are more varied. Bitmine Immersion Technologies, by far the largest public buyer of ETH, currently holding over 5,300,000 ETH, doubled its supercycle expectations this week, citing Wall Street’s interest in tokenization and AI-based agents.
ETH ETF outflows reached 11th consecutive day. Source: Investors from Farside
This optimism contrasts with the wave of departures from the Ethereum Foundation and public skepticism from some long-time Ethereum commentators about how much of the network’s growth ultimately accrues to ETH itself.
US spot-traded ETH funds add another layer to the picture. Farside ETH ETF data shows that these products saw a net outflow of $67.1 million on May 27, marking 11 consecutive days of withdrawals, even after stronger inflow sessions earlier in the year.
D’Anethan said the question remains whether Ethereum’s outperformance will outperform Bitcoin in the long term, pointing out that previous cycles in which altcoins outperformed BTC are no longer sustainable. “It will be interesting to see where large trading companies, institutions, sovereign funds and nation states ultimately place their bets,” he said.
Shannon said Biwise’s factor model shows that the momentum is mainly driven by Bitcoin and that about 80% of ETH price fluctuations can be explained by BTC. “Macro, equities and fundamental drivers like active addresses have taken a backseat,” he said.
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