CoinDesk
Standard Chartered's head of digital asset research, Geoffrey Kendrick, says Strategy's recent bitcoin sale marks the beginning of a structural shift in favour of Ethereum. In a note to clients, Kendrick set a year-end ETH/BTC ratio target of 0.04 — up from roughly 0.028 today — implying ether outperforms bitcoin by more than 40% even if both assets move in the same direction.
Why it matters
The core of Kendrick's thesis is structural, not tactical. Bitcoin treasury firms like Strategy (MSTR) rely on price appreciation and capital markets access to fund operations. Because BTC generates no yield, these firms may periodically need to sell holdings or raise fresh capital to cover obligations — exactly what Strategy's sale signalled. Ether treasury firms, by contrast, can stake their holdings to earn roughly 3% annualised yield, making them more self-sustaining. Kendrick points to Bitmine (BMNR), which holds an $11 billion ETH position and estimates its staking operations generate around $258 million in annualised revenue through its MAVAN platform — without issuing debt.
Market impact
Kendrick carries long-term price targets of $4,000 for ETH by end-2026 and $40,000 by 2030. He notes that on the session when Strategy's sale became public, ETH posted one of its largest single-day gains versus BTC since early 2024. ETH had depreciated 66% against BTC since the Ethereum Merge in September 2022, hitting a five-year low in April 2025, but has since bounced more than 60% from those lows. If Kendrick's staking-income thesis gains traction with institutional allocators, the valuation discount that Ethereum treasury firms currently trade at relative to Strategy could narrow meaningfully.
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