Gold retreats as dollar strength persists
Geoffrey Kendrick, Global Head of Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered, shared his long-term bullish outlook on crypto during the European Blockchain Convention in Barcelona. Despite a recent flash crash that wiped out over $19 billion in leveraged positions, Kendrick believes the structural drivers for crypto remain strong.
Kendrick views the October 10th correction as a short-term event. He notes that the market may need a couple of weeks to digest the liquidation and assess any second-round effects. While there’s a chance that a crypto-native fund was impacted, he believes the October lows will likely hold.
ETF inflows—seen as the clearest sign of institutional adoption—are just getting started. Kendrick expects this trend to accelerate, with institutions becoming dominant players in the digital asset space. He maintains his medium-term price target of $500,000 for Bitcoin by the end of 2028, and $200,000 by the end of this year, calling both “100% achievable.”
He also points out that the current U.S. government shutdown and growing debate over the Federal Reserve’s independence are constructive for Bitcoin, which benefits from being a non-sovereign asset.
Ethereum’s position continues to strengthen as traditional finance (TradFi) institutions move into blockchain. Kendrick emphasizes Ethereum’s reliability, noting it has never gone offline in its 10-year history. Despite higher costs than competitors, Ethereum is the most trusted network.
He believes Ethereum will outperform Bitcoin amid the growing narrative of tokenizing real-world assets, and sets a year-end target of $7,500 for ETH.
For Bitcoin, Kendrick compares its role to gold. For Ethereum and other smart contract platforms, he recommends tracking the revenue or fees paid to applications built on the network—similar to a P/E ratio in equities.
When evaluating protocols, Kendrick suggests Uniswap (UNI) for decentralized exchange growth and Aave (AAVE) for lending and stablecoin-backed DeFi.
Kendrick sees continued relevance for DATs. MicroStrategy’s early Bitcoin purchases were driven by limited investor access, and that logic still applies in many countries. Smaller players are now accumulating Bitcoin, and consolidation may follow.
He highlights the dramatic pace of ETH accumulation by institutions, noting it has outpaced even MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin buying and significantly impacted ETH’s price.
Kendrick doesn’t see signs of a bubble in major assets. For MicroStrategy, the breakeven price is around $73,000. A significant drop below that could cause problems, but current fundamentals remain solid.
Looking ahead, Kendrick sees real-world asset tokenization as a high-growth sector. He names Aave as the most logical winner, predicting that if ETH doubles, AAVE could triple.
He also finds Worldcoin (WLD) intriguing, especially its “proof of human” concept, which could play a role in future zero-knowledge identity systems.