How public companies could end up holding 10% of all Ethereum
The 11 different firms that hold millions of the cryptocurrency on their balance sheet already hold roughly 1% of all coins in circulation, the UK bank said in a Tuesday note to investors.
But Geoffrey Kendrick, Standard Chartered's head of digital assets, predicts that just as these companies will keep buying Ether, even more companies will join the trend.
And that means even more buying.
'They may eventually end up owning 10% of all ETH, a 10x increase from current holdings,' Kendrick wrote on Tuesday.
A laggard for much of this year's rally, Ethereum is finally showing signs of life over the past few weeks. Since public companies started buying the coin in earnest in June, Ether has rallied some 51%, according to CoinGecko.
Over that same period, Bitcoin has risen some 13% and Solana rose 17%.
Besides treasury companies, Ethereum has had other tailwinds. Other analysts are touting the passage of landmark stablecoin legislation in the US as another driver behind the uptick in Ether.
That's because more than 50% of all stablecoins and tokenised financial assets are minted on the Ethereum network.
Elsewhere in the market, spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds are also attracting Wall Street investors more than ever. Of the $1.9 billion in investor money buying various spot crypto ETFs, Ether funds accounted for more than 84% of that figure last week.
The treasury company play offers investors other advantages not realised by the Ether funds either, writes Kendrick.
US Ether funds aren't yet allowed to stake the underlying coins, or put them to work securing the blockchain via its proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.
Treasury companies can, however, do this and rake in roughly 3% yield for doing so.
SharpLink, the online gaming company turned Ether treasury firm co-chaired by Joe Lubin, has already staked 99.7% of its $425 million stake.
Lubin told DL News in June that there's a whole lot more planned in the future, too.
All of this combined, writes Kendrick, may push Ethereum above $4,000 this year.
Crypto market movers
Bitcoin has dropped 0.6% in value over the past 24 hours and is trading at $117,436.
Ethereum also shed 1.3% in the same period to $3,754.
What we're reading
Monero miners lampoon Qubic's thwarted 51% attack as publicity stunt — DL News
21 market catalysts to watch this week— Milk Road
Binance Earn to Let Users Buy Crypto Below Market Price — Unchained
Crypto lender Abra pauses withdrawals as dozens of customers fear their funds are gone — DL News
Liam Kelly is a Berlin-based reporter for DL News. Got a tip? Email him at liam@dlnews.com.
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