Standard Chartered's Global Head of Digital Assets Research, Geoff Kendrick, has issued one of the most bullish long-term forecasts for Bitcoin and Ethereum, predicting Bitcoin could reach $500,000 and Ethereum $40,000 by 2030. The projection suggests significant outperformance by Ethereum, which would deliver roughly 20x gains compared to Bitcoin's projected 7.5x growth from current levels. Kendrick pointed to the ETH/BTC ratio, currently around 0.03, as a key indicator that could rise to 0.04 in the near term.
The analyst's base case scenario includes Bitcoin reclaiming $100,000 by the end of 2026, which would imply Ethereum trading near $4,000 at that time. This represents potential gains of 50% and 96% for BTC and ETH respectively from current prices of $66,400 and $2,036. Kendrick expects the performance gap to widen further as the decade progresses, driven by Ethereum's expanding ecosystem and institutional adoption patterns.
The forecast is based on expectations of increasing institutional adoption, particularly 'Ethereum-first' strategies among major financial institutions. While activity may eventually spread to other blockchains, Kendrick anticipates the first phase of institutional and real-world adoption will occur largely on Ethereum. Rising network activity and growing use cases in DeFi, tokenized assets, and other applications are expected to drive Ethereum's long-term value proposition and justify the aggressive price targets.
