The multinational bank now views Ethereum treasury firms as a more attractive investment option than U.S. spot ETFs.
Ethereum treasury companies are trading at attractive levels, according to Geoffrey Kendrick, the global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, who argues that they offer better value than U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs.
In a Tuesday research note, Kendrick wrote that ETH and the ETH treasury companies “are cheap at today’s levels,” pointing to a sharp rebound in buying by corporates and funds holding ETH on their balance sheets.
Since June, Ethereum treasury firms have purchased 2.6% of all ETH in circulation, he said. When combined with ETF inflows over the same period, that figure rises to 4.9%, doubling the pace of Bitcoin’s fastest accumulation period in late 2024.
Kendrick said he expects treasury firms to ultimately hold 10% of all ETH, with Tom Lee’s BitMine alone targeting 5%.
“With Bitmine (BMNR) themselves aiming for 5%, I think the 10% looks well in hand, with 7.4% still to go. And as a result, I forecast ETH to USD 7,500 by year-end. I see the sell-off over the last two days as creating a great entry point,” he wrote.
As of press time, ETH is trading at $4,604, down 7% from its all-time high of $4,946 reached on Aug. 24.
‘Hard Floor’
Kendrick noted that valuations have come down, with net asset value (NAV) multiples for SharpLink and BitMine now below those of MicroStrategy, even though MicroStrategy doesn’t benefit from staking yields.
“Given that the ETH treasury companies are able to capture ETH’s 3% staking yield, I see no reason for the NAV multiples to be below MSTR’s multiple,” he said.
Friday’s announcement from SharpLink that it would repurchase stock if its NAV multiple falls below 1.0 sets a “hard floor” for valuations, he added.
Kendrick said the normalization of NAV multiples makes ETH treasury firms “now very investable” and a “better asset to buy than the US spot ETH ETFs.”
Data from Strategic ETH Reserve shows BitMine with over 1.7 million ETH (around 1.42% of supply) and SharpLink Gaming with 797,000 ETH, putting ETH treasury companies’ total at 4.36 million ETH, or 3.6%, compared to 6.7 million ETH in spot ETH ETFs.
