Today in crypto, Standard Chartered now sees Ether hitting $7,500 in 2025, fueled by record ETF and treasury buying, stablecoin growth and Ethereum network upgrades, US banking groups have urged to close a GENIUS Act “loophole,” and Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy.
Ether climbs toward new highs as Standard Chartered ups target to $7,500
Standard Chartered has raised its Ether price forecast for 2025 to $7,500, up from a previous $4,000 target, citing a surge in institutional buying and the accelerating adoption of stablecoins following recent US regulatory changes.
In a report shared with Cointelegraph, the bank said Ether (ETH) treasury companies and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have acquired 3.8% of all ETH in circulation since early June, almost double the fastest rate of Bitcoin accumulation by similar entities during the 2024 US election cycle.
“A lot has changed since our last ETH forecast update in March,” Standard Chartered wrote. “The first strongly positive sign was significant industry engagement from the Ethereum Foundation and Etherialize, two of the organisations behind the Ethereum ecosystem,” it added.
The British bank also noted plans by Vitalik Buterin to boost Ethereum’s layer-1 throughput by 10x, enabling more high-value transactions to settle onchain while delegating smaller transfers to layer-2 networks such as Arbitrum and Base.
Standard Chartered cited the passage of the GENIUS Act in July as another major catalyst. The legislation provides a clear framework for stablecoins, paving the way for mainstream adoption. The bank noted that stablecoins account for 40% of all blockchain fees, with over half issued on Ethereum.
US bank groups want to close GENIUS Act stablecoin yield “loophole”
US banking groups led by the Bank Policy Institute (BPI) urged Congress on Tuesday to close what they claimed was a loophole that could indirectly allow stablecoin issuers to pay yields on stablecoins through affiliates.
New stablecoin laws under the GENIUS Act prohibit stablecoin issuers from offering yield to tokenholders, but don’t explicitly ban crypto exchanges or affiliated businesses from doing so, enabling issuers to sidestep the law by offering yields through those partners, they said.
The groups said that a failure to close the so-called loophole could disrupt the flow of credit to US businesses and families, potentially triggering $6.6 trillion in deposit outflows from the traditional banking system.
The banking groups are seemingly concerned that yield-bearing stablecoins could undermine banks’ ability to attract deposits with high-interest savings products in order to back the loans they make.
Offering yield is one of the biggest marketing pulls that stablecoin issuers have to attract users. Some stablecoins, such as USDC (USDC) offered by Circle, reward those holding it on crypto exchanges such as Kraken and Coinbase.
Do Kwon pleads guilty to two charges related to his role at Terraform
Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon has changed his plea from not guilty to guilty on two counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud.
According to reporting on Tuesday from the US District Court in the Southern District of New York (SDNY), Kwon waived his right to go to trial on two of the nine charges he has been facing from the US government and pleaded guilty. The reported plea agreement with prosecutors would impose $19 million in financial penalties.
The two felony charges could carry up to a 25-year prison sentence if served consecutively, but the agreement reportedly would have prosecutors not recommend more than 12 years. Kwon’s sentencing hearing was scheduled for Dec. 11.
“It will be up to me to decide what a just sentence for you would be,” said Engelmayer on Tuesday, according to Inner City Press.
The Terraform co-founder was indicted in March 2023 for charges including securities fraud, market manipulation, money laundering and wire fraud related to his role at the company. He first appeared in the New York courtroom in January after his extradition from Montenegro, pleading not guilty to all charges and remaining in US custody without bail.