Despite the major market crash that happened a while ago, Ethereum looks set to achieve new highs. Ethereum has seen quite a substantial leap in the past week going from below $1000 to crossing $1200. Although Ethereum’s down 2.5 percent in the last 24 hours, it’s likely that the digital currency will make headlines soon.
Ethereum had a better 2017 than Bitcoin in terms of growth rate. It also broke into the smart contract market and is the primary token used in Initial Coin Offerings (ICO). Towards the end of 2017, Ethereum hit $1000 but only for a short while after which it started falling. The digital currency also saw it’s #2 spot taken by Ripple and everything seemed downhill from here.
However, the digital currency has slowly made a comeback recently and has surged even higher in the past week. It has reclaimed its spot as the world’s second largest cryptocurrency (Ethereum now firmly stands with a market cap more than twice as much of Ripple). The digital currency also received a higher rating than Bitcoin and Ripple last week by Weiss Ratings.
The currency hit an all-time high of $1252 and has since fallen to $1196. The price dip likely happened due to the recent attack in Japan which saw over $400 million in cryptocurrency tokens stolen from a Japanese exchange. This is a minor blip and experts strongly believe that Ethereum will rise even higher.
One thing to note is that initially when Ethereum fell, it wasn’t because of lack of demand. It fell because coinmarketcap had stopped using South Korean prices in calculating the global average. South Korea, being the largest cryptocurrency market in the world has a large impact on the global average of a cryptocurrency. Therefore, when South Korean prices were excluded, Ethereum’s price took a massive hit. However, now South Korean prices are being included again and Ethereum’s current performance shows that there was never a lack of demand.
It can be argued then that the price rise is simply due to the inclusion of South Korean prices. Yes, the South Korean prices for Ethereum are higher than the prices at Western exchanges. However, due to recent reports of South Korea looking to ban cryptocurrency trading, the price of Ethereum in South Korea has significantly decreased. Therefore, South Korea’s impact to the global average isn’t as big as it used to be thus, the price rise of Ethereum seems to be legitimate.
According to this chart by coinmarketcap, a month ago, Ethereum was sitting at $758. In a matter of just 30 days, Ethereum was able to rise as high as $1200. This is a massive jump in a short span of time with many experts believing to climb even further.
There’s a reason why many would argue in favor of Ethereum. As established earlier, the price rise was mostly legitimate and not a price inflation due to speculative demand. Therefore, it shows how people realize the importance of Ethereum in today’s world. This is partly due to the fact that many innovative platforms have recently popped up such as the likes of Vibehub, EOS, etc. all of which used Ethereum for their ICOs.
Moreover, the price has slowly crept up without making too much of a buzz in the media. It’s only a matter of time before others see Ethereum’s performance which would increase its demand and drive it up even further. All these factors combined would eventually drive Ethereum to new all-time highs. Ethereum might even reach $1400 sooner than we think according to experts.
What happens remains to be seen as the cryptocurrency market is unpredictable and highly volatile. Currently, almost all currencies are suffering due to the cyber attack in Japan. However, once the dust settles, it won’t come as a surprise if Ethereum is rising again.