Ethereum is a decentralised, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality, with ETH being the native currency on the platform. After bitcoin, it’s the second biggest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalisation, while it’s in the top spot for the most actively used blockchain. Unlike bitcoin which is supposed to be a unit of currency on a peer-to-peer payment network, Ether acts as a fuel that allows smart contracts to run. ETH has a market cap of $319.43billion, with its current price value standing at $2,752.81 at the time of writing on May 27. The currency has seen a net change of $54.91 in the last 24 hours alongside a low of $2,642.12 and a high of $2,891.73.
How high will Ethereum go?
Market forecaster Jim Bianco says if you invest and are someone who can cope with sharp drops in the crypto space, Ether will pay off in spades further down the line.
Mr Bianco, the president of Bianco Nation, said: “Some of these coins like Ethereum are going to be a lot higher way down the road.
“But you’re going to have to stomach through much more of what we saw in the last week coming in the next several months or years or so.”
Mr Bianco warns that the coins are extremely vulnerable to 50 to 70 percent declines at any moment due to the fact it’s a very new technology.
He said once the adoption phase is over and cryptocurrency cements a fundamental role within the economy, prices will be vastly higher overall.
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But he warned it could come at a huge price for investors who bailed during the asset’s early years.
Mr Bianco explained: “That means from that point forward the gains will be a lot less.
“The risk and the reward is now, you will have less risk and less reward once it gets adopted and the volatility slows down.”
Ethereum recently suffered devastating losses following a series of global events that triggered a market meltdown last week.
The crypto market saw big losses on May 19, effectively halving the value of Ethereum as prices dropped from an all-time high of $4,400 to $2,400 on May 25.
DigitalCoin also believes ETH will rise to new heights in the coming years.
The Ethereum forecast from Digital Coin is still bullish, predicting the price will average out at $3,722 in 2021 and rise to $4,650 in 2022.
Over the long term future, Digital Coin projects prices will climb to average $8,047 in 2025 and $11,671 in 2028.
Algorithm-based forecasting service Wallet Investor revised its Ether forecast down from $3,200 at the beginning of June to $2,070.95 and rising to $2,949.99 at the end of 2021.
The forecaster estimates prices will move back toward the $4,000 mark in 2022, ending the year on a high of $4,512.71 before reaching $9,202.42 by the end of 2025.
Ether price predictions from the Economic Forecast Agency (EFA), which had projected the end-of-May price to sit at $2,746, now expects it to drop down to $2,644 in the same period.
In terms of the future, it predicts $2,639 by the end of June before shooting up to $6,247 by the end of the year.
The EFA estimates the price to peak in October 2022 at $10,997, then falling to $7,863 by the end of December 2022, down to $6,624 at the end of 2021 and $4,118 by December 2024.