With new record highs seemingly embolding cryptocurrency investors, Ethereum has made history.
Now, after its superb performance on the trading floor on Monday, Ethereum is headed for exponential gains, experts claim. Ether's price passed the $4,000 mark, reaching an all-time high of $4,196.63, as per CoinMetrics (via CNBC).
Ethereum Price Prediction: $20,000 by 2025
This surge had made cryptocurrency experts predict that Ethereum would reach a price of $20,000 by the end 2025, and that it would emerge as the next big thing after Bitcoin, per Express.co.uk.
With its record high prices, the momentum it has is expected to carry the world's second largest cryptocurrency to unchartered heights.
Ethereum's huge growth, propelled by decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), has now reached 18 percent of the entire cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin still lording it over at 42 percent.
Ether, which had always trailed Bitcoin, has experienced exponential gains as investors focused on cryptocurrencies for returns. The second largest cryptocurrency began 2021 at just $738 and has now soared 400 percent, and its total market value has topped $472.8 billion, according to MarketWatch figures.
With huge market interest in cryptocurrencies, the entire market is valued at about $2.5 trillion--figures from CoinMarktCap showed, per CNBC.
This incredible rise of Ethereum, seen to have its value to quintuple in the next four years, came with general investor interest in cryptocurrencies.
Currently, Ethereum is actually undervalued and would have more use cases than the flagship Bitcoin, said Paul Enms--assistant professor at the University College of Dublin--who was quoted on Express. He further said that Ethereum could reach the $10,000 range at the year's end.
Ethereum is taking advantage of the rising interest in DeFi and NFTs, which authenticates genuine ownership of digital assets such as visual arts, music and videos. These NFTs mainly run on Ethereum.
What Is Ethereum?
Developed in 2013 with Ether as its network currency, Ethereum is an open source blockchain that enables distributed applications and Smart Contracts to run on its platform without any interference from a third party, according to Investopedia. It is also described as programming language that runs on a blockchain, which then allows developers to build distributed applications on its platform.
While Ethereum and Bitcoin are both cryptocurrencies, there are notable differences. Bitcoin is viewed by proponents as a harbinger of value just like gold, while Etherium is targeted as a decentralized internet infrastructure not managed by a primary authority. It has become the basis for decentralized finance, which reconstructs popular mainstream financial products with blockchain technology.
This increased activity, however, might have led to congestion in the network, the CNBC report further noted. To address this, the Ethereum network is said to be currently undergoing a major upgrade that would allow faster transaction times and lesser power needed to process such transactions.
It remains to be seen if the prediction on Ethereum will come true, but it is certainly trending in the right direction.
