No matter the market, investors tend to lean toward established assets as they have a solid track record and, therefore, present lower risks and a higher potential for profit. In the crypto market, Bitcoin fits the bill for the most established digital currency, with its 15-year dominance of the industry and the huge value and equally impressive capital of popularity it has amassed during this time. However, although all other cryptos live in Bitcoin’s shadow, the crypto king is not the only digital asset that has caught investors’ eye. Ethereum is also enjoying a fair share of attention for numerous reasons, but mostly because of its innovative features and groundbreaking capabilities, which place it in a category of its own.
Ethereum provides not only a viable alternative to Bitcoin that investors can take advantage of to bring diversification to their portfolios but also serves as a cutting-edge programmable blockchain platform whose advanced functionalities give developers the possibility to create all sorts of decentralized applications (dApps). Although it’s highly unlikely that Ethereum will top Bitcoin’s performance anytime soon, the platform and its native token, Ether, have great prospects for the future. Therefore, it’s worth keeping an eye on the Ethereum prediction for the months and years to come.
How did Ethereum fare in 2024?
Before we set our eyes on Ethereum’s future and potential price trajectory, we should provide a bit of context and see where Ethereum is standing at the moment. 2024 has certainly been a far better year for Ethereum than the previous ones, which is no surprise considering the entire market has been slowly recovering after the dreadful 2022 crypto winter. The altcoin leader started the year at around $2,200 and slowly climbed its way to a price of $3,128, with a market capitalization of $379.73B at press time. This means Ethereum has experienced a 38% gain over the past three months, which is quite a remarkable achievement.
However, when you compare Ethereum’s price performance since January to that of Bitcoin, the altcoin’s increase doesn’t seem as impressive anymore. By comparison, Bitcoin went up by over 59% in the last three months, and although the $63,977 price it registered at the time of writing shows a slight decline, the original coin also managed to break its previous high in March, setting a new record of $73,750.
Meanwhile, Ethereum hasn’t been able to get anywhere near its all-time high of $4,891, and it doesn’t show signs of consistent appreciation either, remaining stuck under the $4K threshold for the time being. Its price slumped right after the Dencun upgrade by more than 9%, which kind of dampened investors’ hopes for a new bull run. Does that mean Ethereum is bound to continue on a similar note for the remainder of the year? This is not according to the latest predictions, which we’re going to address right away.
Ethereum in the future
While Ethereum’s current standing is neither bullish nor bearish, things might change in the future for the altcoin. Although its appreciation slowed down recently and the price went downwards as of late, it’s likely that Ethereum will soon start to pick up pace again. The reason for this optimistic forecast has to do with the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January.
Those who have been keeping tabs on the crypto market’s evolution will remember that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission gave the green light for the launch of 11 spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in January, which caused quite a stir in the market, pushing Bitcoin’s price up along with all the other cryptos.
While the excitement surrounding the event has faded ever since this historic development put the spotlight on the potential approval of spot Ether ETFs, while most analysts believe there is a 50% chance for spot Ether ETFs to receive the seal of approval from the SEC in May, there’s mounting anticipation in this regard. So, even if things don’t play out as expected, the positive market sentiment around Ethereum could result in a significant price surge.
The most optimistic of predictions see Ethereum reaching a value of $5,000 by the end of the year and a potential increase of up to $6,500 in 2025. If we care to look further into Ethereum’s future, certain analysts envisage a price rise that could help Ethereum past the $20,000 mark by 2030. However, it’s rather premature to cast predictions so far into the future when it’s already difficult to make accurate forecasts about Ethereum’s moves in the next few months.
Another factor that might play a role in how Ethereum will behave from here on out is the Bitcoin halving. The quadrennial slash in Bitcoin’s mining reward is said to give way for a bullish cycle, which could potentially drive prices up for all digital assets. So far, the halving event hasn’t had any significant impact on crypto price charts but it might take a little longer for the market to react.
It’s also not unlikely for Ethereum to perform better after the halving hype cools down since most of the attention has been centered around Bitcoin lately. The halving took place on April 20, so we might see Ethereum go on an upward trend over the following weeks.
Final thoughts
Ethereum still has a long way to go from its current price point to its all-time high and beyond. However, as the crypto market has demonstrated numerous times in the past, these price gaps can be bridged in one swift leap. With Ethereum boasting vast and ever-expanding real-world use cases, it wouldn’t be all that surprising to see the altcoin rapidly ascend to new heights in the future.
