Standard Chartered reiterates a $4,000 ETH forecast as retail rushes in during the sub-$2,000 slide

Retail traders aggressively bought ether even as the token broke below $2,000 for the first time since late March, a move that some analysts argue may point to further downside rather than an established market bottom.

Social media sentiment turned sharply bullish on the breakdown, with Santiment data showing bullish commentary spiking to a 2.4-to-1 ratio on May 27. The firm described the reading as firmly in “FOMO territory,” where retail enthusiasm tends to peak during price weakness rather than strength.

Historically, such sentiment extremes have often acted as contrarian signals. Retail inflows during breakdowns can reflect late-stage optimism, where buyers step in too early and absorb continued selling pressure before a durable bottom forms. Santiment has previously noted that retail traders “often get timing wrong” at emotional extremes.

Standard Chartered, however, remains constructive on ether’s longer-term trajectory. Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank’s head of digital assets research, reiterated a $4,000 year-end target and a $40,000 forecast by 2030 in a Thursday note.

Kendrick argues that ether’s price has increasingly diverged from its underlying network fundamentals. Onchain activity, including transaction volumes and total value locked, remains elevated near record levels, even as ETH has declined roughly 57% from its August peak in dollar terms and about 37% against bitcoin.

He drew a parallel to Amazon during the 2001 dot-com crash, when the stock fell from $113 to $6 despite continued operational growth. Over time, Amazon’s valuation

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