Despite StanChart's $40k estimate, Ethereum price remains at 2.05k.

The price of Ethereum (ETH) has fallen slightly less than 1% over the past 24 hours due to the optimism and fear surrounding Standard Chartered's (StanChart) price expectations.

Crypto exchanges reported that ETH's trading volume increased by 20% over 24 hours, reaching $8.5 billion on Sunday with $248 billion in market capitalisation at the press time.

On-chain data suggests underlying buying pressure, despite traders reporting that Ethereum's price is consolidating. The price of ether is currently consolidating around $2,050 after a sharp decline.

The $1,400 to $1,800 range is being closely watched by the market, as analysts see it as an important accumulation and buying zone at the lower boundary of Ethereum's market structure.

According to technical traders, there is immediate resistance observed at $2,100–$2,150. Ethereum's short-term neutrality is due to the establishment of a base, but it could become bullish if support remains. The sentiment could improve and target $2,400 if there is a sustained break above $2,150, while a failure to reach $1,800 support would indicate deeper downside risk.

Darkfost, an on-chain analyst, reported that Ethereum's Net Taker Volume, which measures the difference between aggressive buy and sell orders, began to show an upturn on February 4th, marking the first positive day since the previous bear market.

Crypto analysts reported that the metric showed a positive difference of more than $104 million, which suggests that buyers are in a superior position in the derivatives market. A bullish signal for Ethereum suggests there may be a change in market structure and a strong bottom being formed.

Ethereum is at a crucial point in its technical development, creating a foundation at a significant support zone from the past, and derivatives data is displaying an early bullish signal.

Standard Chartered's top digital assets analyst believes that Ethereum could provide almost three times the relative returns of Bitcoin by 2030, thanks to institutional adoption, despite the pressures in the cryptocurrency market.

The Global Head of Digital Assets Research for the bank, Geoff Kendrick, presented a stunning price forecast of $500,000 for Bitcoin and $40,000 for Ethereum by the end of the decade on the Milk Road podcast.

The headline figure for Bitcoin sounds huge, but it only represents a 7.5x increase from current levels of around $66,400. To reach his goal, Ethereum, which was trading around $2,050 at the time of his remarks, would require a 200% increase in value.

Anyone who allocates capital across digital assets will find the gap in potential returns to be interesting.