Ethereum (ETH) Price Prediction 2022 • Benzinga Crypto

Decided Ethereum is a good investment right now? You can buy some at some of the best exchanges like Gemini, Robinhood and WeBull.

Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world and for good reason. It was the first general-purpose blockchain, launched in 2015. Think of a general-purpose blockchain as a decentralized computer running on hardware all over the world. It enables all the most exciting fields in Web3. It is so popular that it seems like every single crypto influencer has given a lofty Ethereum price prediction.

As the general-purpose network with more users and developers working on it than any other, Ethereum is a vital part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Without Ethereum, the blossoming sectors of decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) might cease to exist. A few competitors try to grab users’ attention, but none hold a candle to the original yet. 

Ethereum may even take Bitcoin’s place as the largest crypto in the future because it has many more use cases. If the most important thing in the future of cryptocurrencies is maximizing utility, which seems likely, Ethereum is one of the best possible bets.

Is Now a Good Time to Buy Ethereum?

Now might be a fantastic time to buy Ethereum if you are a long-term investor confident in the future of Web3. Ethereum is at the forefront of almost everything in the crypto world. All the most exciting frontiers like DeFi and NFTs are almost exclusive to Ethereum. These frontiers are being explored and built out extremely quickly, and the rate of growth will likely only increase from here. People don’t know if this is the bottom, however, it seems like almost every crypto analyst has given a bullish Ethereum price prediction. ETH could still fall more before it starts to increase again (if it does at all). 

How Long Will the Crypto Bear Market Last?

It is impossible to accurately predict when a bear market will end in a traditional financial market. Predicting the end of a crypto recession is even harder. The current crypto bear market is a little more predictable than normal, however. One of the biggest reasons why the market crashed is the macroeconomic situation. Rampant inflation and the fear of imminent interest rate hikes have the global markets in the gutter. The war in Ukraine has only made the situation worse. The crypto market is still heavily correlated with the stock market and has suffered significantly in turn. Until these macroeconomic issues are resolved, it would be silly to give a bullish Ethereum price prediction.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like there is an end in sight to either of these issues. Interest rates will likely have to be raised to deal with the inflation, and Russia doesn’t seem to be backing down in Ukraine. Until at least one of these problems is resolved, the crypto market will probably struggle to escape this bear market. However, it’s not time to despair just yet. 

WalletInvestor’s cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI)-powered market prediction service is still extremely bullish on Ethereum and the market as a whole. It thinks that ETH will be trading at $2,500 by July 2023. This exact prediction will likely be off because it is using technical analysis of past performance to extrapolate future prices. This method can’t be 100% accurate and could even be entirely wrong. It’s only the AI’s best guess using the historical performance of the cryptocurrency. 

Timing the market is famously impossible because it is so hard to predict the price of an asset (especially in crypto) in the short- or even medium term. Luckily, a fantastic strategy called dollar-cost averaging is used by tons of smart investors to help manage a bear market. Instead of making a few big investments when they think the asset has reached a bottom, investors use dollar cost averaging to make many smaller regular purchases. This process spreads out their buys at different price points to lower their cost basis and diminish the effect of large price swings. In the end, if the asset eventually keeps moving up, the investor using dollar cost averaging wins out essentially every time. 

Will Ethereum Ever Reach All-Time Highs? 

Will Ethereum ever reach all-time highs? People ask this question each time Ethereum crashes by more than 20%. This is much easier than giving an accurate Ethereum price prediction. The answer has historically always been yes. However, the answer isn’t yes with absolute confidence just yet. Its current all-time high, about $4,900, gave Ethereum a massive market capitalization of roughly $560 billion, but past success doesn’t always translate to future success. It also may take years for it to reach all-time highs again.

Ethereum has proven itself to be an amazing foundation that inspires innovation and rapid growth. Competitor blockchains have similar general-purpose functionality, but none has the user base or bring in even half of the developers Ethereum attracts.

You could argue that another general-purpose blockchain will win out in the end, but little evidence supports this theory. The competitor would likely need to start its coup soon. The problems that Ethereum suffers from the most — high fees and slow transactions — will likely evaporate in the next few years after the highly anticipated ETH Merge. 

The Merge has been in the works for years. As part of the upgrade, the network will switch to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism from proof of work. PoS requires validators to stake ETH tokens instead of running expensive hardware that uses absurd amounts of energy. This change will decrease the energy consumption of Ethereum — estimated to be about as high as the consumption of the entire country of Romania — by 99.95%. After the change, Ethereum will no longer have a significant effect on climate change (unlike Bitcoin).

The Merge will also eventually implement a complex blockchain technology called sharding that should significantly diminish fees and speed up transactions. This transformation won’t go into effect along with the move to PoS, however. It is currently planned to launch sometime in 2023. If the global markets have recovered by then, ETH has a fantastic chance of pumping and maybe reaching all-time highs after the Merge goes live.

ETH Market Position

At time of writing, ETH has a market capitalization of close to $200 billion, making it the second largest cryptocurrency. Market capitalization represents the price of the token multiplied by the number of tokens in circulation. When looking at the potential for price growth, it is important to look at the market capitalization relative to other currencies to determine the true growth potential of a project. 

Particularly for ETH, it is important to use market capitalization to compare the currency to Bitcoin (BTC). BTC Dominance is currently at a low level, meaning that BTC makes up only around 42% of the total value of all cryptocurrency. ETH and the many tokens built upon the Ethereum network are currently outpacing the growth rate of BTC, a bullish sign that indicates investors may see the Ethereum network as more important to the future of cryptocurrency than Bitcoin. 

Standard Chartered’s Bullish Ethereum Price Prediction

British-based banking giant Standard Chartered set a price target of $26,000 to $35,000 for ETH. Its team of financial analysts believe that ETH is more similar to a financial market with more use cases than BTC, which they view as solely a currency. However, they note that for ETH to reach $35,000 and overtake BTC as the largest cryptocurrency, BTC would need to trade near $175,000. They add that ETH is a higher risk investment than BTC but could yield a higher reward. 

Van Eck’s Bearish Ethereum Price Prediction

Van Eck is a global investment management firm that warns that governments could compete with ETH by creating Central Bank Digital Currencies, backed by government institutions much like fiat money. Van Eck remains bullish on ETH overall but notes that regulation can be one of the few things that can stop ETH’s momentum.

Is Ethereum (ETH) a Good Long-Term Investment?

Ethereum is often considered one of the best long-term investments in the crypto space. It’s the foundation for thousands of platforms holding tens of billions of dollars. It may have more utility than any other cryptocurrency because it gives holders access to all these different platforms. The number of applications seems to be growing too because due to one of Ethereum’s greatest advantages: its ability to attract developers.

Ethereum has more developers working on the network itself and applications on it than any other blockchain. In 2021, Ethereum had more than three times the developers working on it than the next competitor, Polkadot. Ethereum had about 3,000 monthly active developers whereas Polkadot barely broke 800. This number has increased faster than ever in 2021. Ethereum attracted another 1,200 developers between January 2021 and January 2022. 

With thousands of active developers and an upcoming massive upgrade to the network, Ethereum seems like a shoo-in for one of the best long-term investments in crypto. It is expected to see a myriad of new Ethereum utility springing up as these developers launch their new projects. This is still speculation, however. It could take a long time for the world to emerge from its current financial crisis and hold Ethereum down in the process. Ethereum might never even reach its all-time high. 

How to Buy Ethereum (ETH)

Now that you have seen some of the top Ethereum price predictions, it’s time to learn how to actually buy some. It’s extremely easy. Every major cryptocurrency exchange offers it. Many stock brokerage apps even have it now. Some of the best trading platforms with it include Gemini, eToro, Hodlnaut, and Robinhood. Before you can start trading on any of these platforms, you need to set up an account and verify your identity. This process generally requires you to provide your Social Security number, address and a picture of your driver’s license or other valid ID. Once you are verified, you can deposit a different supported crypto or fiat currency and buy Ethereum.

How to Store Ethereum Safely

It doesn’t matter what Ethereum price prediction you use if you don’t know how to store your tokens safely. The recent cracks forming in large centralized crypto platforms only further prove that it’s much safer to store your own cryptocurrencies. Storing it comes with its own risks like phishing scams, but it’s almost always more secure if you are careful. There are two different kinds of personal wallets: hot wallets and hardware wallets (or cold wallets). Hot wallets, like Coinbase Wallet and MetaMask, are often the easiest to use but can be more vulnerable to phishing scams or cyberattacks. Hardware wallets are kept completely offline, so they are nearly impervious to hacks. However, it doesn’t entirely prevent social engineering and phishing attacks.

The top hardware wallet brand in the world, Ledger, has three main models: the Nano S, Nano X and the new Nano S plus. The Nano S has everything you need to keep your cryptocurrencies secure. The Nano S adds a larger screen and more memory for more applications. The Nano X has the same larger screen and adds BlueTooth functionality for seamless on-the-go use. All Ledger devices use the same certified secure chip that generates, encrypts and stores your private key. Without your private key, no one can access your wallet. Ledgers support more than 1,000 different cryptos on multiple blockchains including Ethereum, Bitcoin, XRP, Dogecoin and all ERC-20 tokens.

How Does Ethereum fit in the Bigger Picture? 

Ethereum has been the second-largest cryptocurrency for a long time. However, this status might be starting to change. Ethereum isn’t likely to be replaced as the king of general-purpose blockchains anytime soon. Instead, it might even eventually replace Bitcoin. Many of the most popular narratives behind Bitcoin like it being a store of value or a hedge against inflation are not looking great right now. Ethereum, in contrast, has tons of clear uses that separate it from existing financial assets. For right now, Bitcoin is still the reigning king of cryptos, and it will likely not go anywhere for a while at least. 

The same thing can’t be said about the many Ethereum competitors. Some of them, such as Binance Smart Chain (BSC), are essentially exact copies with a few major changes. BSC is like Ethereum except it’s nearly entirely stripped of its decentralized nature. Instead of Ethereum’s tens of thousands of nodes validating every transaction (basically controlling the network), BSC leaves it to just 21 nodes. Solana has a similar albeit diminished issue with only about 1,500 validator nodes. It has also gone down multiple times for prolonged periods. Both these networks, to their credit, have significantly cheaper fees and faster transactions. 

Many crypto investors think that Ethereum has the best technical architecture of the general-purpose blockchains but it’s debatable. What isn’t debatable is the number of users, applications and developers on the network. Every other network has a mere fraction of Ethereum’s utility because there are simply fewer options for apps. This gap will likely only continue to widen as the 4,000+ developers on Ethereum outpace other networks.

How Long Will it Take for ETH to Reach $10,000?

A $10,000 Ethereum price prediction isn’t as crazy as it may sound. It’s possible within the next few years. ETH remains the dominant platform for blockchain applications, but the technology is rather new. As more and more developers learn to use the Ethereum network over the coming years, more dapps will exist on Ethereum, and more users will be drawn to the network. 

Additionally, major institutions are beginning to use Ethereum. Traditionally, governments and institutions tend to be slow to adopt new blockchain technology, but the rate of adoption has ramped up over the past year. As more companies realize the potential of Ethereum, the price will be driven up. 

For a $10,000 Ethereum price prediction to be right, it would likely require a further reduction of Bitcoin Dominance. However, Bitcoin remains the best indicator for the health of the cryptocurrency market overall. In essence, ETH needs BTC and the market to climb overall but also needs to eat into BTC’s market share. However, many of the top narratives supporting Bitcoin like it being a store of value and hedge against inflation are starting to fall away. This may lead the way to Ethereum flipping Bitcoin because it has much more utility.

Finally, ETH 2.0 is a major set of upgrades to ETH that is set to roll out within the coming year. As ETH transitions from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, several major changes will occur that can drive up the price of ETH. 

In August 2021, EIP-1559 passed, meaning that some of the transaction fees on the Ethereum network will be burned. The more the network is used, the more ETH is burned, and the scarcer ETH becomes. If you believe that ETH will be used more in the coming years, this deflationary measure should mean the price of ETH will increase.  

The current proof-of-work system hugely increases selling pressure on ETH. Miners have expenses to pay, and they do this by selling the ETH they mine. As ETH moves to proof-of-stake and miners are cut out, this huge dumping of ETH will stop. Additionally, staking rewards users for holding ETH, so the sell pressure will be cut even further. 

The transition to ETH 2.0 should also cut fees dramatically, further increasing network use and increasing the amount of ETH that is burned. The rollout of these scalability upgrades looks to be set for 2023.

So, is Now a Good Time to Buy Ethereum (ETH)?

If you are a long-term investor and you strongly believe in the utility of Ethereum, it may be an incredible time to buy Ethereum. The macroeconomic situation still doesn’t look great but once it starts to improve, Ethereum has a great chance of reaching its all-time high again. The most important factors to look for after the markets return to normal should be the launch date of the Merge upgrade, increasing users and developers and institutional investments.

Frequently Asked Questions