Key Takeaways
While various attempts to launch spot Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) in the US dominated headlines for most of 2023, Blackrock’s recent bid to list an Ethereum-based ETF has thrust the number two cryptocurrency into the spotlight.
Already lifted by bearish market sentiment and a late-October crypto rally, an endorsement from the world’s largest asset manager helped ETH break through $2,000 for the first time in months.
After the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (ETC) approved spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 10, Ethereum reached its highest point in nearly two years on January 12.
A growing market saw ETH break past $3,000 for the first time since April 2022 in late February and, on March 11, it traded at $4,000 for the first time since 2021.
Meanwhile, Ethereum developers are experiencing major changes to the network, with the delayed Deneb and Cancun upgrades coming online on March 13.
By introducing a concept known as proto-danksharding, Dencun is expected to enhance the scaling power of Ethereum layer 2s, helping to increase the network’s overall capacity and lower gas fees for end users.
The upgrade should also improve Ethereum’s interoperability with other blockchains, making cross-chain data flows safer and more seamless.
However, a market slump in April saw the coin drop below $4,000 and come dangerously close to falling below $3,000.
On April 16, 2024, ETH was worth about $3,100.
But what is Ethereum (ETH)? How does Ethereum work? Let’s take a look and see what we can find out, and also examine some of the Ethereum price predictions that were being made as of April 16, 2024.
Let’s examine some of the Ethereum price predictions being made on April 16, 2024. It is crucial to bear in mind that price forecasts, particularly for a potentially volatile asset like cryptocurrency, often turn out to be inaccurate. Additionally, please remember that many long-term crypto price predictions are generated using algorithms, which means they can change at any time.
2023 | 2025 | 2030 | |
---|---|---|---|
Prediction #1 | $4,531 | $5,138 | $26,347 |
Prediction #2 | $4,181.77 | $25,716 | $64,292 |
Prediction #3 | $6,390.30 | $7,783 | $28,137 |
CoinCodex made a short-term Ethereum price prediction that said the coin could reach $3,214.99 by April 21 before dipping slightly to $3,206.44 by May 15. The site’s technical analysis was bearish, with 18 indicators sending discouraging signals and 11 making bullish ones.
LongForecast said ETH would trade at $4,531 by the end of 2024. Meanwhile, CaptainAltCoin said the coin would reach $4,181.77 in December. DigitalCoinPrice ‘s Ethereum price forecast had it at $6,390.30 this year.
Looking ahead to 2025, CaptainAltCoin said Ethereum would climb to $25,716, more than five times LongForecast’s year-end figure of $5,138. DigitalCoinPrice said ETH would reach $7,783 next year.
In terms of a more long-term Ethereum price prediction, CaptainAltCoin said the coin could trade at $64,292 in 2030. Bitnation said it would stand at $26,347 that year. DigitalCoinPrice’s ETH price prediction said it would be worth $21,504 at the start of the next decade.
Google’s BardAI platform gave the following price prediction for Ethereum on March 11. Please remember that the exact price prediction of an asset or cryptocurrency in the future is nearly impossible to achieve. Additionally, artificial intelligence price predictions are predicated on past performances and are in no way entirely accurate.
Within the Ethereum ecosystem, 2023 saw the development of scaling solutions known as zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machines (zk-EVMs).
While most zk-EVMs are still in the development stage, the technology promises to boost dApps’ speed and transaction throughput once applied at scale. The new ZK rollups should make gas fees lower.
Dencun launched in March 2024. Meanwhile, the SEC is also considering applications for seven spot Ethereum ETFs, with an decision on one from VanEck expected by May 23.
However, proposals from founder Vitalik Buterin to increase the platform’s gas limit were met with a mixed response. In February, Buterin suggested five different ways to make Ethereum’s blocks larger.
At the end February, with the market rallying, ETH broke past $3,000 before topping $4,000 on March 11. However, it dropped again as the market fell.
The Ethereum price history is pretty long, but let’s take a look at some of the highlights and lowlights. Remember, though, that past performance is no indicator of future results. That said, knowing what ETH has done in the past can help give us some context if we want to either make or interpret an Ethereum price prediction.
When ETH first came onto the open market in 2015, it was worth about $2.77. It broke past $10 the following year, only for a hack to drop it back down by the end of the year. In 2017, it crossed over $100, and early on in 2018, a crypto bubble saw it spend some time above $1,000 before it dropped back down to spend the so-called crypto winter of the following three years or so, hovering around the $300 mark.
ETH woke up in early 2021 as the market exploded, and it reached just under $4,000 in May. It went down over the summer but, in August, the market picked back up. With non-fungible tokens (NFTs) the buzzword of the day, the success of the, usually Ethereum-based, rights to links to images of digital art helped bolster the price over the next few months. When Bitcoin (BTC) reached record levels in early November, ETH followed suit, trading at an all-time high of $4,891.70 on November 16.
In 2022, though, things started to go badly wrong for the entire world of crypto. Not even the successful completion of The Merge could mitigate an overall gloomy economic climate and a series of market crashes, with Ether getting perilously close to dropping below $1,000 at various points in the year.
2023 was a time of recovery, with the coin breaking past $2,000 for the first time in nearly a year in April. After that, though, the events of early June saw it drop down to a low of $1,624.14 on June 15. There was a market recovery and, on July 14, following the ruling that Ripple’s XRP was not a security if it was being sold on exchanges, it reached a peak of $2,026.20
On December 9, it reached $2,401.76, its highest price since May 2022. By December 13 2023, it was worth about $2,180. On December 28 it peaked at $2,445.02 before closing the year at $2,281.47. The token made another upward move, reaching $2,710.42 on January 12. By February 6 2024, ETH was worth about $2,330.
Later on in the month, Ethereum rallied, passing $3,000 on February 24 and peaking at $3,518.97 on February 29. Another rally saw ETH reach $4,092.28 on March 12 2024, before a slump saw it drop to around $3,100 on April 16 2024.
At that time, the crypto’s entire supply of about 120 million was in circulation, giving it a market cap of about $372 billion and leaving it as the second-largest crypto, behind Bitcoin.
On March 11, Ethereum surpassed the $4,000 threshold, reaching a peak of around $4,100, which marked the zenith of its most recent uptrend. However, it soon began to decline, dropping to $3,062 by March 20. After that, it recovered, reaching $3,730 by April 8.
Although it looked like there could be further gains, a sharp downturn began, suggesting that Ethereum was undergoing a corrective phase.
This drop could indicate the end of a correction, with its recent price recovery potentially marking the beginning of a new upward trend. Alternatively, the recent price increase might simply be a response to oversold conditions as indicated by the daily chart’s Relative Strength Index.
The likelihood of a sustained recovery and renewed momentum is significant. However, should the price fail to hold above $3,300, Ethereum could face a further slide down to $2,400.
It is hard to say. It has recovered pretty well from the news that SEC was suing Binance and Coinbase. Not only that, but it is moving forward with new upgrades. Speculation about a potential spot Ethereum ETF is also driving the price up.
That said, The Merge, which was to take Ethereum to a whole new level, was something of a damp squib, pricewise. Also, cryptos have a reputation for being very volatile so ETH could drop at any time.
On the other hand, the news that more ETH was being staked than ever before suggests that, in technical terms, The Merge has been well-received. Meanwhile, it is doing better than it has done in a long-time.
You must do your own research on Ethereum before you make a decision.
No one can really say for sure. While a lot of forecasts are optimistic, price predictions are very often wrong. Remember, too, that prices can, and do, go down as well as up.
This is a question you will have to answer yourself. Before you do so, you will have to do your own research, not only on ETH but on other cryptos, such as Bitcoin. It is also vital that you never invest more money than you can afford to lose.
A team of developers, led by the Russian-born and Canadian-based computer wizzkid Vitalik Buterin, founded Ethereum in 2013.
On March 11 2024, one wallet held more than 35% of Ethereum’s supply
As of April 16 2024, the five richest ETH wallets were
Supply and Distribution | Figures |
---|---|
Total Supply | 120,070,408 |
Circulating Supply (as of April 16, 2024) | 120,070,408 (100% of total supply) |
Holder Distribution | Top 10 holders owned 45.06% of supply as of April 16, 2024 |
In its technical documentation, or whitepaper , Ethereum says it is designed to take blockchain to a new level.
It says that it wants to use blockchain technology to do more than just support cryptocurrency.
It explains: “What Ethereum intends to provide is a blockchain with a built-in fully fledged Turing-complete programming language that can be used to create “contracts”.”
Before Ethereum, blockchains had basically suppoted cryptocurrencies, but there was the idea that they could be used for things other than money. In 2015, it came out and allowed people to create their own decentralized applications (DApps).
Ethereum, which has gone through a variety of hard forks, processes where a new form of the blockchain is created, making all valid transactions invalid and vice versa, has its own native coin. This coin is, technically speaking, called Ether, but most people call it Ethereum, regardless. This crypto, known by its ticker handle ETH, pays for transactions on the blockchain. People can buy, sell and trade it on exchanges. Holders can stake it, or set it aside, in order to add blocks to the blockchains.
For a long time, the Ethereum blockchain used a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism, which meant that people solved increasingly complex equations to add blocks to the blockchain, earning rewards for doing so. However, there were two major problems with that. Firstly, it had a negative impact on the environment.The blockchain was responsible for upwards of 90 terawatt hours (TWh) of energy per year, according to data from the Ethereum Energy Consumption Index . To put that into context , Ethereum used more energy than the entire nation of Kazakhstan.
Secondly, the Ethereum blockchain could get very slow and very crowded. This meant that transactions took longer, which cost people more money, and it also meant that there was a proliferation of layer 2 scaling solutions. These were platforms linked to the Ethereum blockchain with the aim of taking transactions off the blockchain, carrying them out, and then putting them back on, thus, theoretically, saving time and money.
In 2020, it was decided that Ethereum would move to a new consensus mechanism. A form of Proof-of-Stake (PoS), it now meant that people who held ETH were able to add blocks to the blockchain based on how much ETH they held. The final move to PoS, dubbed The Merge , was completed on 15 September 2022.
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Here is a chart for the Ethereum Google search volume for the past 90 days. This represents how many times the term “Ethereum” has been Googled over the previous 90 days.
It might do. Bitnation and CaptainAltCoin, both say it can get there by 2025.
ETH supports the Ethereum blockchain. People can also buy, sell, and trade it on exchanges.
Please note that the contents of this article are not financial or investing advice. The information provided in this article is the author’s opinion only and should not be considered as offering trading or investing recommendations. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability and accuracy of this information. The cryptocurrency market suffers from high volatility and occasional arbitrary movements. Any investor, trader, or regular crypto users should research multiple viewpoints and be familiar with all local regulations before committing to an investment.