Crypto markets started the week under selling pressure. Standard Chartered revised its price forecast downwards, highlighting the long-term risks associated with scalability issues on the Ethereum network. Following the bank’s warnings, Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs declined.

Crypto markets, which had a weak start to the week, faced selling pressure after Standard Chartered’s concerning statements about Ethereum. The bank mentioned that changes in the Ethereum blockchain could create long-term pressures on the scalability of the network, leading to a downward revision of price forecasts. Before US markets opened on Monday, Bitcoin fell by 0.5% to $83,467, while Ethereum traded at $1,914 with a 0.2% increase compared to the overall market. The general crypto market value decreased by 0.42% to $2.73 trillion, with the CoinDesk Market Index showing a 3.2% increase in the last 24 hours.

EXPECTED BENEFIT NOT ACHIEVED BY LAYER 2 SOLUTIONS Geoffrey Kendrick, the head of Standard Chartered’s digital assets research unit, expressed in a note to clients that they expected Ethereum to remain in a long-term downtrend.

Kendrick announced that they had revised their price target for the end of 2025 downwards. He pointed out that the layer 2 solutions developed to increase Ethereum’s scalability did not provide the expected benefit, claiming that Coinbase’s Base layer 2 blockchain reduced Ethereum’s market value by approximately $50 billion.

$68.41 MILLION NET OUTFLOW OBSERVED Declines were also noticeable in ETF markets. Bitcoin-based exchange-traded funds depreciated in Monday’s pre-market trading. Bitwise Bitcoin ETF and VanEck Bitcoin ETF both experienced a 1.5% drop. According to research platform SoSoValue, there was a total net outflow of $68.41 million from the group of 11 Bitcoin ETFs on Friday. Ethereum ETFs painted a similar picture. Bitwise Ethereum ETF lost 1.6%, while Franklin Ethereum ETF declined by 1.4%. SoSoValue data showed that the group of nine Ethereum ETFs experienced a total net outflow of $35.3 million on Friday.

Shares trading in the crypto mining sector also started the week with a decline. Cango and Canaan lost 1.9% and 1.8%, respectively, while Digihost recorded a positive increase of 1.6%. Furthermore, the stablecoin market drew attention with increasing transaction volumes. The trading volume of Tether’s USDt, the largest USD-backed stablecoin, rose by 66% in the last 24 hours to $59.11 billion. Circle’s USD Coin also saw an 84% increase in transaction volume, reaching $6.78 billion. While concerns about Ethereum and the perceived risks across the market are expected to continue to put pressure on the crypto markets in the short term, investors will continue to closely monitor developments regarding Ethereum’s scalability issues.