- Michaël van de Poppe founded Eight Global, a European crypto consultancy.
- He told us that he is bullish on 3 altcoins, including ether, which could soar to $15,000.
- Van de Poppe also shared why he thinks cardano’s value “isn’t real at this stage.”
At some point in the next nine months, Michaël van de Poppe thinks ether will overtake bitcoin in terms of market capitalization – an event many crypto enthusiasts call the ‘flippening.’
“If we’re still in a bull cycle, I think that will happen,” the Eight Global chief executive told Insider in a recent interview. “The big question is whether it’s temporary, or for the ages.”
“If I had to be bullish on bitcoin or ether for the next two years, I would pick ether,” he added.
That statement should be surprising – considering van de Poppe is confident that bitcoin will hit $300,000 this bull cycle. But he told Insider that a combination of price action, market sentiment, and on-chain analysis pointed to ether’s price rising to $15,000.
Van de Poppe runs Eight Global, a 12-person crypto consultancy and educational platform, from Amsterdam’s Beursplein 5. He also provides price analysis on his 400,000-follower Twitter account and 130,000-subscriber YouTube channel.
“Right now, we’re living our lives in crypto, following our passion, and targeting expansion,” he said. “Most platforms target day trading and trade ideas, but we’re building towards asset management and varied portfolios.”
Eight Global
Ether to $15,000
Van de Poppe bases his price analysis on Plan B’s stock-to-flow model, which compares the amount of a cryptocurrency in circulation against its rate of production. That model suggests that the current
bull market
still has room to run.
“I think we will have six to nine more months of bull, with one more big breakout to come,” van de Poppe said.
“Ether is still in a bull cycle, I’d compare it to the bitcoin bull cycle of 2017,” he added, referring to the 2017 bitcoin boom, when prices soared from $998 to just under $20,000 by the end of the year.
Like all cryptocurrencies, ether has been volatile in 2021. It surged 440% from $775 to an all-time high of over $4,000 in May, but has since slid towards the $3,000 level. Van de Poppe told Insider that he’s anticipating prices will rise four-fold during the current cycle.
“If bitcoin breaks out one more time, then of course ether will do the same,” he said. “Ether towards $12,500 to $15,000 seems very likely with the current burn rates.”
However, van de Poppe did express some skepticism about ethereum’s overall scalability. Ethereum Improvement Protocol 1559, or EIP-1559, is designed to make transaction fees more predictable and “burns” coins to limit ether’s overall supply. It launched in July this year.
“EIP-1559 is the first step,” he said. “But the issue isn’t fixed – gas fees are skyrocketing at the moment.”
“Because it’s not fixed, you see other ecosystems competing – such as solana and avalanche,” he added.
Altcoins to buy
As well as ether, van de Poppe identified two other altcoins that could be set to surge over the next few months. An altcoin is defined as any cryptocurrency that isn’t bitcoin.
“There are still a few coins that are just waking up,” van de Poppe said. “A couple of layer 1 blockchains are lagging behind heavily.”
First, van de Poppe recommended cosmos, due to its sophisticated technical applications.
“Cosmos has its own ecosystem, connecting other layer 1 blockchains, so it’s independent of one fixed system,” he said. “I’ve been saying for a while that it could be the next solana.”
Cosmos’ atom token has posted some strong growth this year, surging from $6.50 at the start of 2021 to an all-time high of just under $45 on September 20. However, its price has collapsed by a third over the last few days, as the Evergrande crisis in the stock market spread to crypto.
Noel Celis / AFP via Getty Images
Secondly, van de Poppe praised polkadot, which he said was clearly lagging behind in the current bull cycle and thus could be set to surge.
“I like it due to the technical factors – I like it purely based on price action analysis,” he said. “Its ecosystem has some difficulties, but it’s one of the few layer-ones not moving at all yet.”
Polkadot’s price has been volatile in 2021, declining from an all-time high of $48 in mid-May to just $11 by July. It’s currently valued at just over $27.
“Cosmos and polkadot are both undervalued,” van de Poppe said. “I think both of these coins could reach three-digit valuations.”
Cardano’s ada a ‘joke’
However, van de Poppe said that he’s currently bearish on cardano’s ada token.
“Cardano being valued at $100 billion just doesn’t make sense at all,” he told Insider. “It suggests we might already be in a bubble with ridiculous overvaluations.”
Ada has gained nearly 1,250% this year, becoming the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, behind bitcoin and ether. Van de Poppe said that there is nothing fundamentally underpinning that valuation, with cardano’s network – which upgraded to hosting smart contracts just nine days ago – lagging behind ethereum and other platforms.
“Cardano is a joke,” van de Poppe said. “The ecosystem that’s being built is beautiful, but it’s ridiculous that it’s valued at such a high number – it’s all big dreams and fortune-telling, with no realization.”
“If you compare it to ethereum, avalanche, or solana, it’s massively overvalued,” he added. “Its value isn’t real at this stage.”
Van de Poppe drew a comparison between the last crypto crash and the current market, pointing to cardano’s similarities with XRP. Ripple’s XRP token surged above $3 at the start of 2018, but then collapsed to under 50 cents just four months later. It has never regained its old position as the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
“Ada could be the XRP of 2021,” van de Poppe said. “Everyone I know who doesn’t have anything to do with crypto is buying up cardano right now – that suggests either it’s overvalued, or other projects are undervalued.”
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