- Geoffrey Kendrick sees bitcoin and ethereum reaching $100,000 and $10,000 respectively this year.
- Standard Chartered’s head of crypto research thinks Ethereum could one day hit $35,000.
- Kendrick also discussed two altcoins he thought showed promise.
Cryptocurrencies look remarkably like tech stocks from the late 1990s, said Geoffrey Kendrick, head of crypto research at Standard Chartered, on fifth largest bank United Kingdom.
But it’s actually a good thing, Kendrick told Insider in a recent interview — though he was well aware that the infamous tech bubble of 2000 eventually burst.
“I don’t use it because in 2000 the technology exploded,” Kendrick told Insider. “But rather to say that the size of the market, the development of the market, was similar.”
Kendrick continued, “We really haven’t seen the extreme price movement and participation that we saw in tech back then. So I’m thinking more about the number of users. And there are very direct crossovers between the number of users of crypto assets, addresses, and the number of Internet users in 1999. In fact, that almost exactly matches the share of the world’s population.”
A crypto boom that doesn’t end in a bust would be a welcome development for investors in the space after what has been a dismal year so far for digital assets. Bitcoin and ethereal, the two largest tokens by market cap, are down 18% and 23% year-to-date, respectively. But Kendrick is focusing on a longer timeline.
“If we fast forward five or 10 years, there’s a very, very constructive backdrop here,” Kendrick said. “And the use cases in things like Ethereum, for example, haven’t even really played out yet. So my background is very, very positive.”
So positive, in fact, that Kendrick’s 2022 price targets for bitcoin and ethereum are $100,000 and $10,000 respectively — implying around 150% and 250% upside for those cryptos. Kendrick confirmed to Insider that over the long term, he still believes Ethereum could be multiplied by over $35,000, a price target that Reuters first reported September 2021.
“There have been a number of market commentators who say that, as in previous bitcoin halving cycles, we are now entering the second half of this, and – in previous cycles – this has been a bearish signal,” Kendrick said. “I don’t agree with this logic.
How bitcoin and ethereum will land on the moon
Standard Chartered’s head of crypto research is convinced that bitcoin and ethereum “have very different drivers” than in previous trade cycles, which is why he thinks they will rebound this year.
Perhaps the most important catalyst for bitcoin and ethereum, according to Kendrick, is this so-called smart money has been pouring into cryptos despite their massive drawdowns since last November. This was not the case in the late 2010s, he said.
“Institutional money is coming in and still coming in despite the selloff, which obviously, in its most aggressive form, was over 50% in bitcoin and ethereum,” Kendrick said. “So to me it says, ‘This time it’s different. “”
Bitcoin could reach the upper end of Kendrick’s price prediction if the token eventually becomes a globally recognized store of value that accounts for around 2% of global assets, the research leader said. But first, crypto must continue to help the unbanked and become a “true peer-to-peer transaction solution,” Kendrick added.
Meanwhile, Kendrick said Ethereum is set to benefit from an upcoming network upgrade that experts have dubbed “fusion”. The event, which is expected to reduce the number of new ether tokens entering circulation, is critical for the crypto market and could lead to a flurry of new investment, Kendrick said. After that, he said, Ethereum might take the title of best token.
“I suspect this opens up the medium-term possibility of Ethereum valuing overtake bitcoin,” Kendrick said. “For that, you would need to get — so my year-end goals are $100,000 and $10,000, which is a 10 to 1. You need to hit about 16% of the price, which I guess is where we’re going in 2023.”
2 “Ethereum killers” to watch out for
Besides bitcoin and ethereum, Kendrick said he has his eye on two altcoins in particular: spotted (POINT) and avalanche (AVAX). These two so-called “Ethereum killers” are still worth considering heading into the Ethereum merger, Kendrick said, adding that investors might want to “be bullish on something that doesn’t. does not do exactly what Ethereum does”.
Polkadot, which is a multi-chain protocol that aims to connect different blockchains, is popular in part because it was founded by Ethereum co-creator Gavin Wood, Kendrick said. The head of crypto research said he was positive on parachains as the Ethereum merger takes place.
“Polkadot probably stands out for me in terms of layers as a potential mid-term beneficiary given its primary use case type of linking across chains,” Kendrick said. “It’s probably, in terms of the size of the first 10 or 20 layers, that would be my No. 1 choice.”
Avalanche received a more cautious recommendation from Kendrick, given that it is considered a direct competitor to Ethereum. Still, he acknowledged that the two tokens need not be mutually exclusive, as a crypto investor could own both.
“I actually like avalanches,” Kendrick said. “I suspect it might — in terms of similarity to Ethereum — actually an avalanche I think might do the trick anyway. Let’s say post-Ethereum merger, it’s kind of like a mini version -me.”