A bullish market trend recently drove the price of Ethereum (ETH) to its highest levels as of yet just shy of $2,000 — this translates to a 130% gain in value in 2021 alone, with the coin managing to double in value in January of 2021. This coincides with a similar Bitcoin market rally that caused the coin to surge to $60,000 momentarily, before it dropped to sit at $57,700 where it currently sits.
While Bitcoin is typically the big name in the crypto world, analysts and investors are waiting with bated breath to watch the ETH price trend as they are expecting a major positive breakout trend.
Since its inception, the Ethereum blockchain has managed to amass great popularity due to its ability to host self-executing smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps) on its blockchain. And with many of the world’s largest DeFi projects built right on its blockchain, Ethereum has been more instrumental in the DeFi world than ever. Most recently, the world has seen the deployment of ethereum 2.0, a full network upgrade of the blockchain. This upgrade has addressed the various issues of congestion and scalability that users on the network had previously faced. The ethereum 2.0 upgrade also provided greatly reduced transaction fees, creating more desirable conditions for traders and investors. By shifting away from the typical Proof of Stake (PoS) system to one that is Proof of Work (PoW), Ethereum has managed to provide better scalability and offer a possible remedy to the criticism of being high on energy consumption. Additionally, miners appear to be more attracted to Ethereum than Bitcoin due to the fact that they are able to earn up to four times more. In fact, Ethereum’s fees sit at record levels, with over $8 million in fees being doled out by the network. These improvements on the Ethereum network could very well prove to create a more secure experience for investors in comparison to other coins, including Bitcoin.
Under these upcoming changes to the network, the number of ether tokens are anticipated to be burned and the fall in supply is set to trigger an explosive growth in the price of this coin. Ethereum previously had a never ending supply, and this move could prove to be major in its history by making the blockchain both eco friendly and scalable.
All this coincides with the most institutional attention in cryptocurrency that the world has seen as of yet. Major corporations like Tesla, Visa, Mastercard, and Amazon have signaled interest in crypto either by way of investment or by working on digital currency projects. Prestigious learning institutions Harvard and Yale were also revealed to have dabbled in crypto investments as of late. Also particular to Ethereum, Ether futures contracts, which launched on February 8th, managed to drive over $33 million in volume on the first day alone. All this large scale interest coupled with Ether’s still rather accessible point of entry for investment translates to an inevitable surge in the price of Ether.
The bullish outlook for both the market and Ether’s price in particular is signaling towards a new price point for the coin that will happily rest over the $2,000 mark. As of right now Ether’s price is just 7% lower than its all time high, and investors and onlookers will have to wait and see whether or not it manages to break that barrier once and for all. With more developers than ever on their network, an end of year price projection of $2,500, and a ton of institutional interest right around the corner, the near future appears to be bright for Ether.