Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, has soared over recent months.
The ethereum price, after beginning the year at under $1,000 per ether token, has smashed through $4,000—climbing alongside bitcoin and most other major cryptocurrencies.
Now, an expert panel has predicted ethereum is set to soar to almost $20,000 by 2025, an increase of 400% from its current price, with “major upgrades” to the ethereum network potentially pushing it higher.
The ethereum price has rocketed over the last few months, climbing almost 500% since January and … [+]
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The ethereum price could soar up to $19,842 by 2025, according to the panel average, with the majority of the 35 panelists predicting ethereum will be the most widely transacted digital currency by the end of 2022—edging out bitcoin.
The panel, including Coinmama chief executive Sagi Bakshi and ConsenSys head economist Lex Sokolin and surveyed by personal finance comparison site Finder, pointed to the soaring popularity of decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFTs giving ethereum a greater use case than bitcoin.
Meanwhile, long-awaited upgrades to ethereum, begun at the end of last year and designed to help ethereum scale and reduce its sky-high costs, could help it reach never-before-seen heights.
“We are likely to see major upgrades to the ethereum network this year, and those can be expected to push the price higher,” said panel member BitBull Capital chief operating officer Sarah Bergstrand—who thinks ethereum will rocket to a staggering $100,000 by 2025.
The ethereum price has rallied hard over the last 12 months, climbing to over $4,000 per ether token … [+]
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Elsewhere, the soaring popularity of DeFi, using cryptocurrency technology to recreate traditional financial instruments such as loans and interest and designed to replace the role of banks with blockchain-based protocols, has helped ethereum surge over the last year.
With many of the biggest DeFi projects built on top of ethereum’s blockchain, the token has soared as users flood the network. Meanwhile, the latest cryptocurrency craze for so-called non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has also resulted in heavy traffic on the underlying ethereum network.
“[DeFi], which is so far building an alternative financial system that is more accessible and democratized, is largely built through decentralized applications on the ethereum network,” said panel member and University of East London senior lecturer Iwa Salami.
“These developments indicate the future of finance and are very promising and well-balanced regulation would facilitate the credibility of this growing industry.”