Morning Minute: Ethereum to $7,500? Standard Chartered Thinks So

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors rebound, Solana leads +9%; Bitcoin at $111,300
• Standard Chartered raises Ethereum price target to $7,500 for EOY
• HYPE hits ATH on back of XPL short liquidation wave
• Google Cloud building their own L1 blockchain
• Myriad crosses $10M in lifetime volume, adds new markets + liquidity

🌅 ETH $7,500? Standard Chartered Thinks So

Forget about $5,000 ETH.

Aim higher.

📌 What Happened

Standard Chartered has raised its year-end Ethereum price target from $4,000 to $7,500.

The bank also projects ETH could hit $25,000 by 2028 if current adoption trends continue.

ETH’s key drivers, as they see them:

• ETF accumulation: Since early July, ETH ETFs have scooped up over $8B in ETH and have now seen a net $13B in total inflows
• Corporate buyers: Heavyweights like BitMine (targeting 5% ownership) and SharpLink are stacking aggressively, treating ETH as a core reserve asset
• Yield advantage: ETH offers staking yields (~3%) and DeFi utility (benefits BTC can’t match) making it more attractive for treasury allocations.
• Regulatory tailwinds: U.S. legislation like the GENIUS Act is fueling stablecoin growth (most issued on Ethereum), with the sector expected to 8× by 2028.
• Tech upgrades: Ethereum’s roadmap includes 10× throughput improvements, unlocking higher-value transactions and scaling its DeFi backbone.

It’s a pretty strong bull case.

🗣️ What They’re Saying

“ETH corporate treasuries can capture both staking rewards and decentralized finance (DeFi) leverage opportunities, which U.S. Ethereum ETFs currently cannot. As such, we think ETH treasury companies have even more growth potential than BTC ones.”

“Although these inflows have been significant, the point is that they are just getting started.”

“ETH and the ETH treasury companies are cheap at today’s levels.”

– Geoff Kendrick, Head of Digital Assets Research, Standard Chartered

🧠 Why It Matters

The combination of ETF inflows + Treasury Companies buying billions + a stablecoin boom and regulatory clarity makes for the cleanest setup ETH has had in its existence.

And the yield aspect of ETH hasn’t even fully been unlocked yet (ETH staking ETFs expected in Q4).

There is a real case to be made that it is a stronger crypto reserve asset than BTC due to its yield-bearing / ability to be used in DeFi.

We’re seeing that rotation actively play out now, with the ETH BTC ratio approaching 1-year highs at 0.041 (and ancient BTC whales converting bags of 24,000 BTC for ETH).

It feels like Wall Street is just now setting its sights on ETH and its capabilities and use cases, and just starting to beat the drums on the ETH thesis.

There very well may be room to run beyond $7,500…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Memes

A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

• Crypto majors were green, led by SOL; BTC +1% at $111,200, ETH +4% at $4,600, XRP +4% at $2.99, SOL +10% at $205
• CRO (+47%), JTO (+12%), Kaia (+10%) and HYPE (+10%) led to movers
• Bitcoin’s 2-week Bollinger bands are at their tightest levels ever seen, indicating an explosive move coming soon
• Hyperliquid briefly hit a new ATH at $51 before retracing
• The ETH ETFs pulled in $455M in net inflows to start the week vs $88M for BTC
• Standard Chartered raised its ETH year-end price target to $7,500 and $25,000 by 2028
• The US Commerce Department announced it will publish GDP data on blockchain, pushing for transparency in economic reporting and distribution
• MetaMask launched Google and Apple login support, easing wallet recovery for mainstream users
• Gemini launched ETH and SOL staking services in the U.S.
• Google Cloud is developing its own L1 blockchain named ‘Google Cloud Universal Ledger’ aimed at being a “credibly neutral” platform for financial institutions

In Corporate Treasuries

In Memes

• Memecoin leaders are green on the day; DOGE +5%, Shiba +3%, PEPE +2%, PENGU +2%, BONK +5%, TRUMP +3%, SPX +5%, and FARTCOIN +4%
• GOATCOIN was the top SOL onchain mover, running 14x to $12M

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here’s a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:

🤖 AI x Crypto

Section dedicated to headlines in the AI sector of crypto:

• Overall market cap up 1% to $1176B, leaders were green
• FARTCOIN (+4%), VIRTUAL (+3%), TIBBIR (+4%), aixbt (+2%) & ai16z (+1%)
• DARK (+40%), GRIFT (+20%) and MOBY (+14%) led top movers

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:

• ETH NFT leaders were mostly red; Punks -3% at 46.8 ETH, Pudgy -3% at 10, BAYC +2% at 9.7 ETH
• Artist PFPs were top movers, with XCOPY’s Grifters hitting a 24.5 ETH floor ($112,000) and Sam Spratt’s Masks of Luci hitting 9 ETH ($41,000)
• Bitcoin NFTs were mostly green led by Nodemonkes (+7%)
• Abstract NFTs were mostly green, led by Roach Racing (+48%) an Gigaverse ROMs (+13%)
• Pudgy Penguins announced a Nascar Labor Day weekend takeover, along with collectible cards are now available at Japanese convenience stores