Standard Chartered Says Ethereum Remains Deeply Undervalued

Ethereum struggles to convince markets for months, but Standard Chartered refuses to give in to the prevailing pessimism. The British bank has just reaffirmed one of the boldest forecasts in the sector: an ETH at 40,000 dollars in the long term. To justify this bet, the institution highlights a simple observation: the current value of the network would not yet reflect its growing weight in decentralized finance, stablecoins, and asset tokenization.

Standard Chartered maintains its $40,000 forecast on Ethereum

Standard Chartered has not changed its roadmap for Ethereum despite the disappointing performance of the asset against Bitcoin in recent months. The bank confirmed its target of $4,000 in the short term and $40,000 in the longer term, estimating that the market continues to undervalue the network.

In its analysis, the institution mentions “a marked disparity between the current price of Ethereum and the growth of its network activity”, meaning a significant gap between Ethereum’s current price and the growing activity observed on its blockchain.

To justify maintaining its forecast, Standard Chartered highlights several observations :

• Ethereum remains the primary infrastructure used by a large part of the crypto economy ;
• Network activity continues to grow despite the recent underperformance of the ETH price ;
• The current valuation does not yet fully reflect the growth of economic activity recorded on the blockchain ;
• Analysts consider that the market still underestimates the long-term potential of the network.

According to the bank, these elements are enough to maintain the previously presented bullish scenario, despite an environment where Bitcoin attracts more investment flows and market attention.

Ethereum’s dominance in on-chain finance at the heart of the bullish thesis

Beyond the price question, the bank emphasizes the position occupied by Ethereum in several strategic segments of the crypto industry. Standard Chartered notably identifies stablecoins, decentralized finance, and real-world asset tokenization as the main drivers of the network’s growth. According to the institution, this dominance could allow Ethereum to capture an increasing share of the value created by the expansion of these markets over the coming years.

To illustrate this vision, analysts draw a parallel with Amazon after the burst of the internet bubble. The idea is that a dominant infrastructure can go through long periods of undervaluation before the market fully recognizes its economic importance. In this perspective, Ethereum would be seen more as an essential infrastructure layer for the emerging digital economy than as a simple speculative asset.

This stance reflects the growing interest of institutions in concrete uses developed on public blockchains. If the growth of stablecoins and tokenized assets continues at the pace anticipated by Standard Chartered, the debate around Ethereum’s valuation could gradually shift from speculation to its capacity to serve as a central infrastructure for global digital finance. Maintaining the $40,000 target precisely illustrates this long-term reading, which relies primarily on the evolution of the economy built around the network.