Overview
- Standard Chartered’s head of digital-asset research, Geoffrey Kendrick, interprets MicroStrategy’s recent disclosed sale of about 32 BTC as a possible turning point that favored Ethereum in market reaction.
- The disclosed sale totaled roughly $2.5 million and was MicroStrategy’s first public Bitcoin monetization since 2022, a move the company said it used to cover preferred-stock distributions.
- After the sale was reported, Bitcoin fell close to 5% while Ethereum fell less than 2%, producing one of the largest single-day spikes in ETH’s performance versus BTC since 2024.
- Kendrick argues that firms holding ETH can stake it to earn rewards, which creates a steady income stream and reduces the need to sell, and he projects ETH could reach roughly $2,700 by year-end with a longer-term $4,000 target.
- Standard Chartered notes the sale was small in absolute supply and broader market forces such as ETFs, derivatives stress and tokenization adoption will determine whether the apparent shift in ETH/BTC performance becomes durable.