Standard Chartered has raised its Ether price forecast for 2025 to $7,500, up from a previous $4,000 target, citing a surge in institutional buying and the accelerating adoption of stablecoins following recent US regulatory changes.

In a report shared with Cointelegraph, the bank said Ether (ETH) treasury companies and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have acquired 3.8% of all ETH in circulation since early June, almost double the fastest rate of Bitcoin accumulation by similar entities during the 2024 US election cycle.

“A lot has changed since our last ETH forecast update in March,” Standard Chartered wrote. “The first strongly positive sign was significant industry engagement from the Ethereum Foundation and Etherialize, two of the organisations behind the Ethereum ecosystem,” it added.

The British bank also noted plans by Vitalik Buterin to boost Ethereum’s layer-1 throughput by 10x, enabling more high-value transactions to settle onchain while delegating smaller transfers to layer-2 networks such as Arbitrum and Base.

Related: Ether futures open interest hits all-time high as ETH price tops $4.5K — Will it last?

GENIUS Act to supercharge Ethereum’s stablecoin dominance

Standard Chartered cited the passage of the GENIUS Act in July as another major catalyst. The legislation provides a clear framework for stablecoins, paving the way for mainstream adoption. The bank noted that stablecoins account for 40% of all blockchain fees, with over half issued on Ethereum.

The bank expects the sector’s market capitalization to grow eightfold to $2 trillion by 2028, driving both direct and indirect demand for Ethereum through decentralised finance (DeFi) growth, where ETH already holds a 65% share of total value locked.

Standard Chartered anticipates ETH will surpass its previous all-time high by the end of Q3 2025, continuing its recent outperformance against Bitcoin. It projects the ETH-BTC ratio will climb from 0.036 to 0.05 as Ethereum’s fundamentals strengthen.

At the time of writing, ETH was trading at $4,692, less than 4% from its previous ATH of $4,891 registered in November 2021, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Meanwhile, Standard Chartered’s new long-term outlook sets ETH at $12,000 in 2026, $18,000 in 2027 and $25,000 by 2028.

Related: Michael Saylor is not sweating the rise of Ethereum treasury companies

ETH profit-taking kicking in

With ETH nearing a new all-time high, profit-taking is kicking in. As reported, the Ethereum whale collective known as 7 Siblings has sold $88.2 million worth of ETH over the past day, unloading 19,461 ETH at an average price of $4,532.

The Ethereum Foundation also sold 2,795 ETH worth about $12.7 million in two transactions late Tuesday.

Magazine: How Ethereum treasury companies could spark ‘DeFi Summer 2.0’