Standard Chartered Compares ETH to Amazon in 2001, Maintains Year-End Price Target of $4000

May 28: Standard Chartered’s Global Head of Digital Assets Research, Geoffrey Kendrick, published a report drawing a direct parallel between Ethereum’s current trajectory and Amazon in the aftermath of the 2001 dot-com bubble burst. He referenced Jeff Bezos’s well-known quote: “A stock is not the company, and the company is not the stock.” Kendrick’s analysis notes Ethereum has seen its price drop roughly 57% from its August 2025 peak to hover around $2,000, but stressed the network’s core on-chain metrics are nearing all-time highs—including transaction volume and ETH-based Total Value Locked (TVL). The gap between Ethereum’s fundamentals and its current price is unsustainable, he argues, meaning ETH will eventually align with improvements to its internal metrics. Kendrick reaffirmed price targets of $4,000 by the end of 2026 and $40,000 by the end of 2030. His bullish thesis for Ethereum centers on its dominant position in two fast-growing crypto segments: stablecoins and tokenized Real-World Assets (RWAs). Right now, 54% of all stablecoins are deployed on Ethereum, driving about one-third of this year’s on-chain transactions and 60% of total TVL. The total stablecoin market cap is projected to multiply sixfold to roughly $20 trillion by the end of 2028. Meanwhile, Ethereum supports approximately 62% of all tokenized RWAs and 68% of on-chain loans—and this sector is poised for a 50x expansion. Additional tailwinds include the upcoming Ethereum Economic Zone, which will cut reliance on cross-chain bridges and boost the ecosystem’s overall composability. Progress on U.S. crypto market structure legislation is also viewed as a critical driver supporting Ethereum’s long-term activity and ETH’s price performance.