Standard Chartered Compares Ethereum Slump to Amazon’s 2001 Crash

• Standard Chartered compared Ethereum’s current price weakness to Amazon during the 2001 tech crash.
• Geoffrey Kendrick said Ethereum’s internal metrics continue improving despite ETH’s sharp decline.
• The bank maintained ETH targets of $4,000 by end-2026 and $40,000 by end-2030.

Ethereum’s price decline does not match the strength of its network activity, according to Standard Chartered. The bank compared ETH’s recent weakness to Amazon during the 2001 dot-com crash, when the stock fell sharply while internal business metrics kept improving.

Notably, Standard Chartered’s Geoffrey Kendrick said ETH may eventually catch up to Ethereum’s internal metrics. The bank kept its long-term price targets unchanged, even after ETH fell sharply from its August 2025 high.

Standard Chartered Sees Amazon Parallel

Standard Chartered said Ethereum’s recent underperformance does not reflect the network’s improving fundamentals. Kendrick compared ETH to Amazon after the 2001 tech bubble burst, citing Jeff Bezos’s point that a stock can fall even while a business improves internally.

According to The Block, ETH has dropped about 57% from its August 2025 high to roughly $2,000. The ETH-BTC ratio has also fallen about 37% over the same period. However, Kendrick said Ethereum’s transaction count and total value locked in ETH terms remain near all-time highs.

That gap forms the center of the bank’s argument. Price has weakened, while network usage metrics have stayed firm. Kendrick said stronger internal data should eventually support ETH, adding that it is “just a matter of time.”

Связано: Ethereum опускается ниже 2000 долларов, поскольку розничная торговля спешит покупать падение

Stablecoins Keep Ethereum in Focus

Standard Chartered kept its ETH price targets at $4,000 by the end of 2026 and $40,000 by the end of 2030. The bank also expects the ETH-BTC ratio to recover toward 2021 highs near 0.08 by the end of the decade.

Stablecoins remain one of the main reasons behind that outlook. Kendrick expects the stablecoin market to grow from about $321 billion now to nearly $2 trillion by the end of 2028. Ethereum currently hosts 54% of stablecoins, while stablecoin activity accounts for about one-third of Ethereum transactions this year.

That position gives Ethereum a major role in digital dollar settlement. If stablecoin supply grows as projected, Standard Chartered expects more activity to flow through Ethereum and related networks, supporting transaction volume and total value locked.

Related: Ripple Urges SEC to Apply 0% Haircut Rule to Stablecoins

RWAs and Regulation Add Support

Tokenized real-world assets also play a major role in the forecast. Kendrick said the non-stablecoin RWA market could grow 50 times to $2 trillion by 2028. Ethereum currently hosts about 62% of those assets and 68% of active on-chain loans.

Additionally, the planned Ethereum Economic Zone could improve movement across Ethereum-based networks. Kendrick said the system may reduce reliance on bridges, which have often carried security risks, while improving composability across EVM-compatible chains.

Regulatory clarity remains another part of the bank’s view. Progress on the U.S. Clarity Act could support decentralized finance activity if clearer rules help institutions use blockchain-based markets.