- After going on a 70% rally in July, excitement for Ethereum’s upcoming Merge seems to have dwindled, with ETH’s price tracking most sidelways for the month of August, currently down a total over 3.5% from August 1.
- Ethereum is currently changing hands $1,555 (AU$2,283) per token and still commands the second largest market cap in the crypto market, valued at $187 billion (AU$274 billion) overall.
- Ethereum’s long-established position as a market leader and intrinsic technological value grants it a dominance rivalled only by Bitcoin (BTC) — despite growing threats of competitors.
- Emboldened by with the recent surge in ETH’s price, many experts are feel renewed confidence for the future of the Ethereum network and predict that its price will easily increase by more than 1000% by 2030.
After suffering delays and setbacks for years, Ethereum have finally announced that the transition to Ethereum 2.0 also known as the “Merge”, which takes its older Proof-of-Work blockchain (slower and environmentally hazardous) and upgrades it to a faster, more environmentally friendly one called Proof-of-Stake.
With the Merge coming in a little over two weeks, (currently scheduled for September 15) the market is undeniably tense—with many experts remaining completely divided on their predictions concerning the price of ETH following a successful Merge.
Former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes, predicts that Ethereum will more than double in value from here to reach a $5000 valuation by May next year, following on from a successful Merge. In a lengthy blog post titled “ETH-Flexive”, Hayes outlines his extensive reasoning for why he believes the price of Ethereum will surge post-Merge.
“If the merge is successful… traders will buy ETH today, knowing that the higher the price goes, the more the network will be used and the more deflationary it will become, driving the price higher, causing the network to be used more, and so on and so forth,” he explained.
“This is a virtuous circle for bulls,” Hayes concludes.
On the other side of the fence sits an experienced trading firm called Galois Capital, who have an extremely solid track record of predicting events the rest of the crypto market didn’t see coming.
Galois told their 50k Twitter followers that the broader market is undoubtedly overexcited about the Merge and hasn’t properly priced in any of the downsides.
In a somewhat-technical Twitter thread Galois explained the overall reasoning for their contrarian approach:
“When everyone is doing the same thing, it is generally good to do the opposite.”
Galois doubled down on this idea, saying that even though there’s a very slight risk of an unsuccessful Merge, the “failure risks are not priced in” and any discussions about these risks are being “hand-waved away by Merge bulls.”
In This Ethereum Price Prediction Story
What Is Ethereum?
First conceived in 2013 by Canadian-Russian programmer Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum has drawn widespread recognition for both its utility as a decentralised means of currency transfer and its ability to function as a system of trust verification that’s capable of forming the backbone of technological infrastructure.
ETH’s ability to autonomously and reliably validate digital transactions through smart contracts contributed to its popularity among the early crypto community, as well as being supported more recently by technology giants like Microsoft and Intel. By January 2018, Ethereum had established its position as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, trailing only Bitcoin by a margin that Goldman Sachs has predicted ETH could eventually manage to close.
Large market cap coins like Binance Coin, Solana, and Dogecoin mirrored Ethereum’s price surge over the last week of November, potentially indicating a decrease in the secondary influence of Bitcoin momentum, which fell by 0.50 percent.
A potential obstacle that may stand in the way of Ethereum’s price momentum (and the crypto industry as a whole’s price momentum) in December is the looming uncertainty of impending cryptocurrency legislation in India, with India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently stating: “The risk that cryptocurrencies can lead to undesirable activities is being closely monitored.”
12 Month Ethereum Price Prediction (2022)
With the Ethereum and Bitcoin price booming at the start of December 2020 (before their prices fell, which you can read about here), many experts and investors will be anticipating its value to track its growing market dominance, which has steadily increased throughout last year.
Exemplifying the volatility and unpredictability of its price relative to other financial assets, end-of-year Ethereum price predictions provided across a panel of 50 experts, established by Finder in October 2021, ranged from estimates as low as $3,1733 AUD to as high as $14,103 AUD.
According to Finder, Dr Iwa Salami, an associate professor at The University of East London, noted: “Ethereum has the advantage of being the first mover” and:
“Cheaper and faster blockchains are still not threatening competitors to Ethereum in this respect, which means Ethereum is likely to maintain its dominant position for some time to come.”
At the same time, some are making sure not to get carried away by ETH’s recent momentum, citing potential issues with its increasing fees and the growing threat of competition as other currencies gain steam. In the aforementioned Finder report, partner at Panxora Crypto, Gavin Smith, gave an Ethereum 2021 price prediction (for the close of 2021) of $4,231 AUD, opining:
“The costs have reached a point where most smart contract operations are now too expensive without integrating a level-two solution.”
Other smart contract blockchains are also coming out with better technology solutions that support a greater number of transactions at a lower cost (though they are not as battle-experienced as Ethereum, and could run into their own problems). This battle will impact Ethereum’s price predictions in the years to come.
5 Year Ethereum Price Prediction (2021 – 2026)
Over the longer term, some experts predict that Ethereum will be able to closely rival the price of Bitcoin. On the bold end of the prediction spectrum, hedge fund manager at BlockTower Capital Rahul Rai predicts that ETH has a chance of overtaking Bitcoin, which currently sits at around $57,000 USD ($80,407 AUD), at some point in 2022, Business Insider reports.
Popular AI-based forecast website WalletInvestor.com has previously forecasted Ethereum to be valued above $7,000 USD ($9,874 AUD) in 2023. In contrast, crypto trading platform Prime XBT has predicted that ETH will return to its current price in 2023 after its trajectory peaks in 2022.
A conservative estimate from Thomson Reuters Futurist Joseph Raczynski sets $12,000 USD ($16,927 AUD) as a forecast for 2025, according to Finder.
The mean figure drawn from the Finder expert panel’s predictions is an Ethereum’s price of $15,364 by 2025, and an Etheruem price prediction beyond $50,000 USD ($70,533 AUD) by 2030.
Ethereum Price Prediction Conclusions
- Ethereum’s future trajectory will depend on whether or not its competitors are able to challenge its prominence among investors and users of blockchain technology, and the degree to which ETH is able to establish itself as the backbone of the Web3 ecosystem.
- Lagging transaction times and ‘gas’ fees that increase in line with growing usage are a threat to Ethereum’s leading position in the market, as competitors like Cardano are able to process an exponentially larger amount of transactions at a cheaper rate.
- “The Merge” announced in recent weeks indicates that the Ethereum network may finally solve the problem of high gas fees by moving to a faster, more efficient network mechanism called Proof-of-Stake.
- Ethereum is likely to benefit from the increasing levels of investment flowing into global digital assets, as the recognition of cryptocurrency’s legitimacy continues to expand.
- Although the current instances of fiscal tightening from governments around the world can cause markets to tumble, Ethereum is positioned to weather the long-term storm better than most owing to its inherently valuable technological capabilities and its status as a market leader.
- Provided that the cryptocurrency market remains stable enough for awareness and adoption to continue to grow, Ethereum is well-positioned as a potentially revolutionary technology and a possible challenger of Bitcoin, with its prominence likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
RISK STATEMENT
This article is of a general nature only, and is intended for solely informational purposes. This is not financial advice. Never invest more money than you can afford to lose into any crypto.
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