Ethereum has struggled alongside Bitcoin through the current bear market climate but this has not stopped bullish predictions for the digital asset. The most recent bullish prediction comes from British multinational bank Standard Chartered which believes that the Ethereum price could climb higher than  $8,000.

Factors That Could Trigger The Rise

Geoff Kendrick, Head of Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered Bank has revealed his forecast for the Ethereum price in a research note. According to the researcher, he sees big things in the future of the digital asset which could climb higher than $8,000 in the coming years.

Talking about the asset’s valuation, Kendrick points toward the many use cases for Ethereum that have emerged over the years but also sees more use cases emerging as time goes on. One of those is the much-coveted gaming and asset tokenization sector.

Also, the Standard Chartered researcher said that they expect that Ethereum will see more growth than the pioneer cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. While he expects Bitcoin to rise 3.5x, they believe Ethereum will rise 5 from current levels.

“We think the path higher for ETH prices may take longer than for BTC, but we see ETH eventually reaching a higher price multiple than BTC relative to current levels (5.0x versus 3.5x),” the researcher said.

He also believes that Ethereum would go on to further register its dominance in the space, especially with the Layer 2 blockchains such as Arbitrum that have popped up to enhance the network. This, he believes, would lead to an increase in the Ethereum profit-earnings ratio (P/E ratio).

ETH price succumbs to bear pressure | Source: ETHUSD on Tradingview.com

Ethereum Could Climb Above $8,000

In terms of actual dollar values, $8,000 is not the only figure that the researcher dropped for the Ethereum price. The expectations for the digital asset exceed this four-digit figure right into the five-digit territory as Kendrick believes ETH could rise to anywhere between $26,000 and $35,000.

As for when this might happen, the researcher seems to be targeting the next bull market as he expects the factors that will drive this value growth to happen between 2025-2026. “We see the $8,000 level as a stepping stone to our long-term ‘structural’ valuation estimate of $26,000-$35,000,” he said in the note. Then beyond this, the researcher expects the price to continue to rise.

This is not the first time that Kendrick has released a bullish prediction for cryptocurrencies. He previously said he expects the price of Bitcoin to reach $120,000 and the entire crypto market to rise as well. However, it seems the researcher is much more bullish on ETH.

Not everyone has provided bullish forecasts for ETH though. One crypto analyst actually believes that the digital asset is set for more decline. In the analyst, FieryTrading suggests that Ethereum’s price could fall as low as $900.