Global banking giant Standard Chartered has published new five-year price forecasts for three leading cryptocurrencies: Avalanche (AVAX), Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). According to these forecasts, Avalanche is poised to gain significant ground in both Bitcoin and Ethereum by 2029.
Ryan Rasmussen, Head of Research at Bitwise, drew attention to these ambitious goals through X. "Global banking giant Standard Chartered has just published 5-year price targets for Bitcoin, Ethereum and Avalanche," Rasmussen wrote, pointing to a chart that outlines the bank's projections.
Standard Chartered expects Avalanche (AVAX) to reach $55 by the end of 2025, $100 by 2026, $150 by 2027, $200 by 2028 and eventually $250 by the end of 2029. This projected growth represents a more than 1200% increase from the current trading level of around $20.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) has updated its forecast and now predicts BTC to rise from $200,000 in 2025 to $300,000 in 2026, followed by $400,000 in 2027 and finally reaching $500,000 in 2028 - a level it is expected to maintain until 2029.
For Ethereum (ETH), Standard Chartered projects the token to reach $4000 in 2025, $5000 in 2026, $6000 in 2027 and $7500 by 2028, with no change expected in 2029. The forecast shows steady but less dramatic growth compared to Avalanche.
In terms of benchmarking, the bank provided ratio metrics to show how AVAX might perform against BTC and ETH. The BTC to AVAX ratio, which measures how many AVAX tokens are equivalent to one BTC, is expected to drop from 3,636 in 2025 to 2,000 in 2029.
This downward trend suggests that AVAX will appreciate faster than bitcoin over the period. Similarly, the ratio of ETH to AVAX is predicted to decrease from 73 to 30 over the same time period, indicating a similar superiority to Ethereum.
Standard Chartered's upside case for Avalanche
Standard Chartered has initiated coverage on Avalanche, saying it expects AVAX to rise from its current price of approximately $20 to $250 by the end of 2029. "One upside to the rate noise is that it gives us a chance to realign and pick winners for the next digital asset price hike," Jeffrey Kendrick, global head of the bank's digital asset research, said in an email to The Block on Wednesday, referring to its latest report. "And I think Avalanche will be another winner, maybe a winner in the EVM [Ethereum Virtual Machine] circuits."
Kendrick emphasized that Avalanche's approach to scaling - especially after its Etna upgrade, also known as Avalanche9000 - positions the network for long-term success. Enabled in December 2024, the Etna upgrade dramatically reduced the startup costs of subnets (which Avalanche now calls Layer 1 blockchains), reducing setup costs from up to $450,000 to nearly zero.
Kendrick noted that these changes appear to be attracting new developer activity, "A quarter of Avalanche's active subnets are now Etna compatible, and the number of developers has jumped by 40% since the upgrade."
He also mentioned that some developers are migrating from Ethereum Layer 2 solutions to Avalanche due to its compatibility with Ethereum code and the lower cost of starting new subnets or L1 chains. Although Avalanche's fees may still be higher than some Ethereum L2s like Arbitrum, Kendrick believes that attracting completely new applications - especially in areas like games and consumer-focused tools - will be critical to Avalanche's growth.
"As a result, we see AVAX outperforming both bitcoin and ethereum in terms of relative price increases in the coming years," Kendrick noted, while noting Avalanche's higher volatility levels compared to BTC.
At press time BTC was trading at $83 334.
