Standard Chartered is keeping its $40,000 price target on Ethereum, even after the second-largest crypto lost 57% of its value from an August 2025 peak. The bank published its latest digital-asset note Thursday, arguing that the rout hasn't damaged the network's underlying strength. In fact, it sees a widening gap between on-chain fundamentals and market price — one that tokenization and stablecoin growth might eventually close.
The stubborn $40K call
Standard Chartered first laid out the $40,000 target months ago, a figure that now looks ambitious after ether's slide. The bank isn't budging. It believes the drawdown is more about macro headwinds and sentiment than anything broken in Ethereum's ecosystem. The call has drawn some eye rolls on crypto Twitter, but the bank's research team points to real activity: more stablecoins minted, more real-world assets being tokenized on Ethereum, and a growing user base that's actually using the chain for something other than speculation.
Why the bank thinks fundamentals are outpacing price
Ethereum's network indicators are strengthening, according to Standard Chartered. Transaction counts, active addresses, and total value locked have all held up better than the price. The bank argues this disconnect creates a setup where a catalyst — clearer U.S. regulation, a stablecoin bill, a big tokenization deal — could trigger a sharp re-rating. It's not a wild theory; the same sort of gap preceded prior Ethereum rallies in 2020 and early 2023.
But the timing is tough. Ether is trading well below its peaks, and the broader crypto market is still skittish after the 2025 sell-off. Standard Chartered acknowledges that stablecoins and tokenized assets take time to scale. It's not predicting a bounce next week. The thesis is longer-term: if institutional adoption continues, Ethereum's fee revenue and network effects will eventually justify a much higher price.
The tokenized-asset angle
Standard Chartered's own digital-asset arm, Zodia, is active in the tokenization space. The bank sees tokenized bonds, private credit, and even commodities as a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity over the next five years. Ethereum, as the dominant smart-contract platform, stands to capture a large slice of that value. That conviction is baked into the $40,000 number — it's not just a trading call, but a bet on a structural shift in how assets move on-chain.
Whether that bet pays off depends on execution. The bank is sticking with it, though, and for now the market can either fade the call or watch for the signals Standard Chartered says it's tracking.
