Standard Chartered plans to launch a crypto prime brokerage for institutional clients under its SC Ventures unit, as part of expanding its digital-asset services.

Internal discussions are ongoing with no final launch timeline or public comment from the bank on the plans.

The bank is already active in crypto infrastructure through investments in Zodia Custody and Zodia Markets and offered institutional spot crypto trading last year.

ETH prices hovered near $3,105 at the time of writing, with about a 3-month decline of 17% and a 1-year decline of around 5.4%, per Nansen data.

The price context for Ether shows similar levels, with recent declines reflected in three- and twelve-month frames.

U.S. spot crypto ETFs have grown to roughly $140 billion in assets under management, aided by regulatory clarity from policy actions under the current administration.

Ethereum is seen as strengthening due to dominance in stablecoins, real-world assets, and DeFi, plus anticipated increases in layer-1 throughput.

standar Chartered’s head of digital assets research argues ETH could outperform Bitcoin on DeFi strength, scalability upgrades, and potential US regulatory clarity.

Regulators are discussing potential revisions to crypto risk rules, though changes are not yet certain.

Near-term weakness is linked to weaker Bitcoin performance, impacting digital-asset prospects against the USD.

Standard Chartered trimmed its Ether price outlook for 2026–2028, while maintaining a long-term view that ETH could exceed $40,000 by 2030.

The bank’s long-term outlook remains positive, projecting ETH above $40,000 by 2030, up from earlier targets.