Standard Chartered has slashed its year-end 2026 price targets for Bitcoin and Ethereum, even as the bank reaffirmed its far more ambitious 2030 forecasts. Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank's Global Head of Digital Assets Research, cut Bitcoin's 2026 target to $100,000 from $150,000 and Ethereum's to $4,000 from $7,500. The revisions come as Bitcoin trades above $66,000 and Ethereum near $1,800, well below the old targets.
Why the targets came down
Kendrick sees a credible path for Bitcoin to dip to $50,000 and Ethereum to $1,400 before any sustained recovery, the bank said in a note this week. The ETH/BTC ratio has dropped 37% from August highs — a stark reversal from earlier optimism about Ethereum outperforming. For Bitcoin, $60,000 is the psychological and technical line bears need to hold; if macro conditions ease, Kendrick expects BTC could run above $70,000 in the short term.
2030 targets still in place
Despite the near-term cuts, Standard Chartered is sticking to its 2030 targets: Bitcoin at $500,000, Ethereum at $40,000, and Uniswap at $100. The bank frames 2026 as 'the year of Ethereum,' predicting ETH will outperform BTC as DeFi, stablecoins, and tokenization volumes compound. Uniswap's price ladder runs $6.50 in 2026, then $20, $40, $65, and $100 by 2030. Kendrick argues UNI could outperform both BTC and ETH across the decade.
The 200-week SMA as a floor
For Ethereum, the 200-week simple moving average is a critical longer-term support level. Historically, breaches of that level have marked generational buy zones. Kendrick flagged that if Ethereum slides to $1,400, it would test that line. Bitcoin's $50,000 downside scenario is similarly seen as a potential bottom before recovery.
Elsewhere: Bitcoin Hyper raises $33M
In other market news, Bitcoin Hyper, a Bitcoin Layer-2 project with Solana Virtual Machine integration, raised roughly $33 million in its presale at $0.01368 per token. Staking is already live for participants. The project is one of several aiming to bring Solana-style execution to Bitcoin's base layer.
