Standard Chartered Bank predicts that Ethereum will reach $8,000 by the end of the year, which means a potential increase of more than 130%.

The upcoming Ethereum spot ETF is expected to mark another major victory for the cryptocurrency industry.

Wall Street has given different predictions on how Ethereum will change after the ETF is listed. According to foreign media reports, Fidelity and other five Ethereum spot ETFs will be listed on Cboe on July 23.

Even before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved these Ethereum spot ETFs in May, optimism about their creation had already sparked bullish expectations for Ethereum.

Since March, Standard Chartered has predicted that Ethereum will reach $8,000 by the end of the year. The bank expects these funds to drive $15 billion to $45 billion into the Ethereum market within 12 months. As of last Friday, Ethereum was trading just below $3,500, which means a potential increase of more than 130%.

Bulls have taken confidence from the performance of bitcoin spot ETFs since their launch. As money poured into these ETFs in early 2024, bitcoin climbed more than 73% to a record high of $73,780 in March. However, Wall Street is divided on whether Ethereum can repeat that momentum.

JPMorgan’s Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou noted in late May that an Ethereum spot ETF would likely attract only a small portion of inflows.

Citigroup made a similar prediction this month, predicting that Ethereum spot ETF inflows will only account for 30%-35% of Bitcoin spot ETF inflows. This is equivalent to $4.7 billion to $5.4 billion flowing into Ethereum spot ETFs in the next six months.

Both banks provided some of the same reasons for this. They pointed to the first-mover advantage of the Bitcoin spot ETF and stressed that Ethereum offers features that would not be available through an ETF, thus limiting demand. For example, ETF investors would not have access to Ethereum staking, a feature that locks up tokens in exchange for a yield.

However, others believe these predictions are too pessimistic. In late June, Steno Research predicted that Ethereum would reach $6,500 this year, driven by strong capital inflows.

Analysts at Steno Research said, "The market's view on the upcoming Ethereum spot ETF is too pessimistic. We expect net inflows to reach $15 billion to $20 billion in the first year because Ethereum has the characteristics to attract Wall Street." The company said , “This should significantly drive up its value, not only in USD terms, but also in Bitcoin terms.”

Sources also noted that Ethereum’s liquidity is more constrained compared to Bitcoin, in part due to yield limits. According to Galaxy Digital, this makes Ethereum more price sensitive. In other words, even if inflows are not as large as spot Bitcoin ETFs, Ethereum may still realize significant gains.

“Despite the uncertainty surrounding the popularity of Ethereum spot ETFs, capturing 10-20% of Bitcoin spot ETF inflows could push Ethereum above $4,000 and closer to its peak of $4,800,” QCP Capital said in mid-June.

SynFutures CEO Rachel Lin predicts that supply considerations are one of the main reasons why Ethereum could surge to $22,500 this cycle. In a May report, she outlined that Ethereum’s supply has remained at 120 million since 2022, while Bitcoin’s supply continues to grow.

But whatever impact net inflows and supply have on Ethereum prices in the coming months, the immediate impact of an Ethereum spot ETF could disappoint investors, some say.

“Price movements will be limited in the first few days as funds will slowly move from cryptocurrencies to ETFs rather than flowing in quickly,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, senior market analyst at FxPro.

He added: “But look at the broader picture - this is a second cryptocurrency that can be easily added to an investor’s portfolio. In the first few months after the launch of the Ethereum spot ETF, the relative weight of Ethereum in traders’ portfolios is likely to rise.”