After a strong start to the year, it's been a difficult week for ether ETH$2,948.68 and the rest of crypto, but Standard Chartered’s Geoff Kendrick sees reasons for remaining bullish.

Trading at $2,912 in U.S. morning hours Friday, ETH was lower by 12% week-over-week and now down 1.7% on a year-to-date basis. Tom Lee's Bitmine Immersion (BMNR), the largest corporate holder of ETH, has dipped nearly 9% for the week and is now down 10% year-to-date.

Kendrick noted that Ethereum’s base network has seen a sharp uptick in activity in recent weeks, with transaction counts hitting fresh all-time highs, driven by a recent capacity boost from the December Fusaka upgrade.

The jump in usage marks a break from previous cycles where upgrades failed to move the needle on long-term network growth, he said. Unlike past upgrades, Fusaka appears to be easing prior bottlenecks, allowing more users and developers to push through transactions. Kendrick argued that this capacity shift sets the current wave of activity apart from previous rallies.

Read more: Ethereum upgrade sparks activity spike, but JPMorgan doubts it will last

Bitmine Immersion, Kendrick noted, has shown no sign of slowing its ether purchases, with Chairman Tom Lee — at last week's annual meeting — laying out the company's plans for eve more acquisitions going forward.

Macro conditions are also helping, Kendrick added. The resolution of Greenland-related tariff risks, a rebound in the Japanese bond market after the panicky selloff earlier this week, and rising odds that BlackRock fixed income chief Rick Rieder could be the next Federal Reserve chair all favor risk assets. "[Reider] will run the economy hot which should help crypto," said Kendrick.

“Being long ETH and BMNR into the weekend looks [like] good risk/reward."