Standard Chartered Bank: MicroStrategy selling Bitcoin marks a turning point for gold! Predicts ETH will start surpassing BTC from now on, aiming for 4,000 by the end of the year

The chain reaction of MicroStrategy selling coins is brewing! Standard Chartered Bank released a major report today (2nd), bluntly stating that Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) has, for the first time ever, sold 32 Bitcoins. While the amount appears to be extremely small, in reality it is a “key turning point” for the crypto market—moreover, it even predicts that yesterday was the starting point for Ethereum (ETH) to begin surpassing Bitcoin (BTC). Standard Chartered analysts emphasized that ETH has a unique advantage in staking yield, enabling companies to “pay dividends without selling coins.” The continuing improvement in fundamentals will drive ETH to reach $4,000 by the end of this year.
(Background recap: Standard Chartered Bank: Ethereum now is like Amazon in 2001! ETH at year-end 4000, $40,000 by 2030)
(Additional background: Standard Chartered Bank announced it would lay off 15% of its back-office staff before 2030! The CEO admitted: replacing “low-value labor” with AI)

A tactical sell-off by Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder, in the eyes of top Wall Street analysts, has unexpectedly released an entirely different bullish signal for a market shift.

According to a report by The Block, Geoffrey Kendrick, Head of Global Digital Asset Research at Standard Chartered Bank (a multinational banking giant), released his latest market report today (June 2, 2026). In remarks that are nothing short of surprising, he said that Strategy’s disclosure on Monday of selling 32 Bitcoins (about $2.5 million)—though the amount is “absurdly small”—has very significant symbolic meaning behind it.

Kechichian asserts: “I think yesterday (Monday) was the starting point when ETH’s performance began to outperform BTC.”

Historic rebound: as BTC plunges sharply, the ETH/BTC exchange rate surges against the trend

After Strategy announced it would sell Bitcoin to pay preferred stock dividends, Bitcoin (BTC) has been unable to withstand the selling pressure and has fallen below the $70,000 threshold. As of the time of this writing, it has dropped to $68,790, with a decline of more than 4.25% over the past 24 hours. By contrast, Ethereum (ETH) has shown very strong resilience against the downside: it is down only slightly, 0.25%, and has formed a bottom around $1,975.

Kendrick pointed out that amid Bitcoin’s sharp drop, the ETH/BTC ratio on Monday (currently about 0.028) recorded the most notable single-day countertrend rise in the past few years. Since early 2024, on days when Bitcoin fell, there have only been 23 days in which the ETH/BTC gain was larger than on this day. This suggests that, in the midst of panic, market capital is showing a clear pattern of sector rotation. Standard Chartered Bank maintains its long-term price outlook: ETH will reach $4,000 by the end of 2026, and $40,000 by the end of 2030, and it expects the ETH/BTC ratio to rebound to 0.040 by year-end.

At the same time, Kendrick compares today’s Ethereum to Amazon during the dot-com bubble burst in 2001:

“Although ETH’s recent price performance has been poor, its role as core infrastructure in stablecoins, real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, and DeFi activity is becoming increasingly important, and internal indicators are continuing to improve.”

The ultimate weapon of Ethereum’s treasury: holding 3% staking interest, companies “don’t need to sell any coins at all”

Beyond the macro narrative, Standard Chartered Bank also breaks down the decisive differences between Bitcoin- and Ethereum-treasury companies (Digital Asset Treasury, DAT) from the underlying logic of their corporate financial structures:

| DAT treasury company type | | --- | Core assets | Annualized yield (Yield) | Financial operating constraints and advantages | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | BTC treasury company (e.g., Strategy) | Bitcoin | 0% (no native yield) | To pay preferred stock dividends or debt interest, it will in the future be forced to regularly sell small amounts of BTC to realize cash flow. | | ETH treasury company (e.g., Bitmine) | Ethereum | about 3% (native staking) | No need to sell any ETH at all. The interest generated from staking alone is sufficient to cover all dividends and necessary operating expenses. |

Kendrick emphasized that this structural advantage will lead to a repricing in capital markets. He expects that the mNAV (net asset value multiple) of Ethereum treasury companies (such as Bitmine Immersion and Sharplink, which have recently been aggressively accumulating) will soon surpass Strategy. A higher premium multiple will make it easier for Ethereum treasury companies to raise funds on Wall Street at lower costs, and their “pure buy-and-hold, never sell” business model is more financially sustainable in the long term than Strategy—whose model requires issuing debt and being forced to sell coins.