Standard Chartered Bank: Ethereum ETF expected to be approved in May, Ether price may rise to $4,000.
Standard Chartered Bank predicts that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may approve an Ethereum ETF in May. According to Standard Chartered Bank's forecast, the price of Ether is expected to rise to $4,000 before the anticipated approval date. Previously, Bitcoin experienced a significant sell-off after the approval of ETFs, but Standard Chartered Bank believes that Ethereum is likely to avoid this situation. Ether is the second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, with a market capitalization of approximately $285 billion. The current trading price is around $2,350.
Zhitong App has learned that Standard Chartered Bank predicts that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may approve an Ethereum ETF in May.
In a research report released on Tuesday, the bank stated that May 23rd is the final date for the SEC to review the applications for the VanEck and Ark 21Shares ETFs.
Standard Chartered Bank expects the SEC to make a decision on these applications on the final date, similar to the approval of 10 Bitcoin ETFs on January 10th. Geoff Kendrick, Head of Foreign Exchange Research and Digital Asset Research at Standard Chartered Bank, stated that Ethereum and Bitcoin have key similarities in terms of legal and financial conditions, indicating that a similar approval process will be followed.
In June of last year, the SEC removed Bitcoin and Ether from its list of 67 tokens it considered securities. In addition, like Bitcoin, Ether also has futures trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. With a market capitalization of approximately $285 billion, Ether is the second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin.
Kendrick predicts that the price of Ether will rise to $4,000 before the expected approval date of May 23rd, assuming that Ether follows a similar trading pattern to Bitcoin during the ETF approval process. As of the time of writing, the trading price of Ether is approximately $2,350.
However, this price prediction is based on multiple assumptions, including the expectation that the market's general expectation for approval remains low, the implied volatility is incorrect, and the SEC will approve multiple applications on the same day.
Standard Chartered Bank states that Ether is expected to avoid the significant sell-off that Bitcoin experienced after the ETF approval. Previously, Bitcoin fell by 20% after the ETF approval, and investors, including FTX, sold billions of dollars worth of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). The fund was converted from a trust, and holders were unable to redeem it. Compared to the Bitcoin held by GBTC, the existing Grayscale Ethereum Trust has a smaller share in the total market value of Ether.
Kendrick wrote, "These factors should make Ether less susceptible to sell-offs after approval compared to Bitcoin."