Ethereum Poised to Outperform Bitcoin as Strategy Sells BTC, Standard Chartered Says

TLDR:

• Standard Chartered projects Ethereum will climb 41% to $2,700 by year-end as ETH/BTC ratio hits 0.04.
• Strategy’s $2.5M Bitcoin sale triggered one of Ethereum’s largest daily outperformance spikes since 2024.
• Ethereum-holding firms can stake assets for yield, reducing sell pressure unlike Bitcoin-holding firms.
• Standard Chartered sets a $4,000 year-end target and a $40,000 Ethereum price goal by decade’s end.

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Ethereum may be entering a period of sustained outperformance against Bitcoin, according to Standard Chartered.

The bank’s head of digital asset research, Geoff Kendrick, pointed to Strategy’s recent Bitcoin liquidation as a turning point.

The sale triggered one of Ethereum’s largest single-day gains relative to Bitcoin since 2024. Kendrick argues that Ethereum’s price remains deeply disconnected from its improving network fundamentals.

Strategy’s Bitcoin Sale Creates an Opening for Ethereum

Strategy disclosed on Monday that it had sold approximately $2.5 million worth of Bitcoin. The move marked the firm’s first BTC liquidation since 2022.

Following the announcement, Ethereum recorded a notable daily outperformance spike against Bitcoin. Since the start of 2024, Ethereum has outperformed Bitcoin on down days only 23 times, making this move statistically rare.

Kendrick noted a key structural difference between Bitcoin-buying and Ethereum-buying firms. Companies holding Ethereum can stake their assets to earn rewards through transaction validation.

That staking income reduces the need for firms to sell holdings to meet financial obligations. Bitcoin-holding firms like Strategy lack that built-in revenue mechanism.

Strategy’s shares fell more than 9% on Tuesday following the disclosure. The stock closed at $136.08, down nearly 15% over five trading days.

Bitcoin itself dropped around 5.8% in 24 hours, recently trading near $67,288. That broader market weakness created room for Ethereum to gain ground relatively.

Kendrick projected that Bitcoin’s dominance over Ethereum will weaken to a ratio of 0.04 by year-end. That level was last seen in September.

Assuming Bitcoin remains flat, Ethereum would need to rise 41% from $1,900 to reach approximately $2,700. He wrote that the ETH/BTC ratio is the key metric to watch through the rest of 2025.

Network Metrics and Wall Street Demand Support Ethereum’s Case

Standard Chartered last week set a year-end price target of $4,000 for Ethereum. In his note, Kendrick compared Ethereum’s current undervaluation directly to Amazon’s collapse during the dot-com bust.

He wrote that in both cases, strong underlying fundamentals were masked by short-term price weakness. The bank sees Ethereum’s current price level as a similarly mispriced opportunity.

Kendrick also wrote that Ethereum is set to benefit from Wall Street’s growing interest in stablecoins as modern money and tokenization as new market infrastructure.

Asset managers including BlackRock have already recognized Ethereum’s leading role in both sectors. Stablecoins and tokenized assets largely settle on Ethereum’s network. That gives the blockchain a structural edge as institutional digital finance expands.

On the longer horizon, Kendrick penciled in $40,000 for Ethereum by the end of the decade. Over the same period, he expects Bitcoin to reach $500,000.

Both targets are grounded in institutional adoption trajectories rather than short-term speculation. The bank views the two assets as serving distinct but complementary roles in a maturing digital asset market.

Historically, Bitcoin’s advance to all-time highs has been followed by extended altcoin outperformance, a dynamic known as “alt season.”

Some analysts now question whether that cycle pattern holds, given Bitcoin’s more mature market structure through exchange-traded funds.

Kendrick’s bullish case for Ethereum, however, rests on on-chain metrics and institutional demand rather than cycle theory alone. The ETH/BTC ratio movement will remain the primary signal to track in the months ahead.

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