Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick has declared 2026 as Ethereum’s breakout year, predicting a massive rally in the making. Despite cutting short-term price targets for Ethereum due to Bitcoin’s recent weakness, Kendrick believes the second-largest cryptocurrency will outperform BTC moving forward. His logic rests on several pillars: Bitmine Immersion Technologies continues accumulating ETH while other corporate buyers have stepped back, and Ethereum remains the dominant platform for stablecoins, tokenized assets, and decentralized finance.

Upcoming network upgrades to boost throughput tenfold are also expected to drive value. The potential U.S. CLARITY Act, which the Senate reviews on January 15, could provide the regulatory certainty needed to accelerate DeFi growth. Kendrick raised his end-2030 target for ETH to $40,000, seeing it hit $15,000 by 2027.

He remains bullish on Bitcoin as well, forecasting $500,000 by 2030.