Can Ethereum [ETH] hit $8,000, before touching $35,000?

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Oct 13

Standard Chartered have predicted a 400% hike in ETH's 3-year performance
Meeting this projection would depend on several factors within the Ethereum blockchain

Standard Chartered took a break from its Bitcoin [BTC] predictions and focused on Ethereum [ETH] recently. In doing so, it noted that the altcoin king could hit $8,000 by 2026. Here, the projected price represents a 400% hike in ETH's current value.

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High potential for ETH

According to the details shared by Business Insider, the financial institution gave reasons for its prediction. Geoff Kendrick, who heads FX and Digital Assets Research at the firm, noted that ETH could have a higher price than BTC. He said,

"We think the path higher for ETH prices may take longer than for BTC, but we see ETH eventually reaching a higher price multiple than BTC relative to current levels (5.0x versus 3.5x)."

Previously, Kendrick had led a Standard Chartered report predicting a $120,000 per Bitcoin price in 2024. But this time, the report shared a longer-term projection for ETH, saying it could move between $26,000 and $35,000 at one point.

For the $8,000-projection to be possible, the market cap of ETH needs to hit $744 billion. According to Kendrick, increasing improvement on the Ethereum blockchain would be vital to the projected price action.

Furthermore, he gave examples like the danksharding, blockchain gaming, and Real World Assets (RWA) tokenization as some of the sectors expected to fuel the growth.

Proto-danksharding, as proposed by Ethereum, is a way for rollups on the blockchain to add cheaper data to blocks. According to Standard Chartered, the implementation could drive an increase in transactions and lower transaction costs, thereby affecting ETH's price positively. He added,

"This should help to cement ETH's dominance in the smart contract space, thereby increasing its P/E ratio (if not its earnings) over the next couple of years."

RWAs are vital too

On RWAs, there has been some development as projects like MakerDAO [MKR] are adopting the approach. According to Dune Analytics, there has also been an increase in RWA ERC-20 tokens.

Examples of these tokens include GFI, FACTR, ONDO, among others. Furthermore, there are about 44,700 RWA token holders, and over 25,000 of this number joined in the last 365 days.

Source: Dune Analytics

If the holder count continues to increase, then ETH adoption is likely to follow. This is also a suitable reason for increased accumulation and a hike in the coin's value. Kendrick noted,

"The obvious initial benefit of tokenization is that it allows fractional ownership of otherwise lumpy or illiquid investments (e.g., real estate) at low cost; the costs associated with tokenization are very low compared to other fractional ownership models, like IPOs."

Realistic or not, here's ETH's market cap in BTC terms

At press time, the weighted sentiment around Ethereum had improved to 0.454. Weighted sentiment considers the unique social volume regarding the perception the market has towards a project.

So, the metric being in the positive zone implies that market players have a bullish sentiment towards ETH, even in the short term.