PANews reported on April 3 that according to The Block, Standard Chartered Bank has begun to conduct coverage research on the Layer 1 blockchain Avalanche and said that it expects the network's native token AVAX to rise more than 10 times from the current approximately $20 to $250 by the end of 2029. Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank's global head of digital asset research, said in the latest report: "One positive aspect of the tariff storm is that it gives us an opportunity to readjust and pick the winners of the next round of digital asset price increases. I think Avalanche will be another winner, perhaps a winner in the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chain." Kendrick specifically pointed out the advantages of Avalanche's expansion plan, especially the Etna upgrade (codenamed Avalanche9000) completed in December 2024. The upgrade enables developers to create subnets or Layer 1 blockchains on Avalanche at almost zero cost-originally required to pledge $450,000 worth of AVAX tokens, and now the technical threshold and capital requirements are greatly reduced. Data shows that after the upgrade, subnets compatible with Etna have accounted for 25% of the total active subnets, and the number of developers has surged by 40%.
Based on Etna's growth momentum after the upgrade, Standard Chartered Bank gave a phased target price: $55 by the end of 2025, $100 in 2026, $150 in 2027 (breaking the historical peak), $200 in 2028, and $250 in 2029. Kendrick emphasized: "AVAX's relative growth in the next few years may surpass Bitcoin and Ethereum, but it should be noted that its three-month historical volatility is close to 100%, which is twice that of Bitcoin."
