Ethereum Could Outperform Bitcoin Despite Recent Price Weakness: Standard Chartered

Ethereum is staging a quiet comeback, even as the price keeps falling. ETH is dropping under $1,900, well off its late-2024 highs, while Bitcoin continues to show cycle-wide underperformance that Standard Chartered says is now working directly in Ethereum's favor.

Standard Chartered's head of digital assets research, Geoffrey Kendrick, told clients this week that Strategy's disclosure of a 32 BTC sale worth $2.5 million may mark a structural turning point for the ETH/BTC ratio. Yes, a 32 BTC sale — the kind of move that used to be a footnote and is now apparently a market event.

On the day of the announcement, ETH posted one of its largest single-day outperformance moves versus BTC in recent years, an event that has occurred just 23 times since the start of 2024. Statistically rare, which in crypto means it will probably happen again next Tuesday.

Kendrick projects the ETH/BTC ratio to climb from 0.028 to 0.04 by year-end, implying over 40% relative outperformance fo