According to analysis house Coinmarketcap, Ether (ETH) is currently trading at around $2,800 (as of May 2, 2022, 10:29 a.m.), equivalent to around €2,650. In the past 24 hours, the market price has increased by around 2.3%. The market cap currently stands at $342.6 billion. Read everything new about Ethereum, Bitcoin and Co in the Handelsblatt news blog.
Ethereum Price: How Has It Performed Since Launch?
In terms of market capitalization, ether is now the second largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin. Shortly after its introduction in 2015, it achieved an increase in value of around 15,000% in early 2016. In June 2017, an ether coin was worth more than 300 US dollars, and in early 2018 it was already worth 1 $380 after a major price hike. In 2019, after a strong correction, the price stabilized between 100 and 200 US dollars.
Since the start of 2020, there has been another clear uptrend, which, after a brief low in the spring of 2021, peaked with an all-time high of $4,859.50 on November 10. The price of ether has been in a correction phase since mid-November 2021.
What factors affect the price of Ethereum?
Many factors change the price of Ether. For example, economic policy decisions affect the value of many cryptocurrencies. Latest example: the change in monetary policy announced by the US Federal Reserve (Fed). As inflation in the United States hits new records, the Fed has decided to raise its key rate and reduce its own balance sheet.
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Read about it: First hike since 2018 – US Federal Reserve begins interest rate hike
Under such tight monetary policy, many investors are shedding risky positions such as cryptocurrencies. During the interest rate recovery announcement, the price of Ether sometimes fell into the double-digit percentage range.
In addition, investors are increasingly withdrawing from risky investments due to the war in Ukraine. For example, on the day of the Russian attack – February 24, 2022 – Ether fell a good twelve percent.
At the same time, progress and news regarding the crypto project influence the price of Ether. Ether is regularly boosted with software updates that promise more efficient processes in the Ethereum network.
Even one person – the richest person in the world, Elon Musk – has always caused a lot of movement in the crypto markets. Musk’s tweets regularly cause cybercurrency prices to fluctuate sometimes violently, which is why critics sometimes accuse him of market manipulation.
Ethereum Price Prediction: How Do Analysts Assess the Future?
There are no reliable forecasts for the Ether price. Incidentally, this applies to the entire crypto market. The past has shown enough how highly volatile and unpredictable digital assets are.
Nevertheless, some crypto experts speculate that the November 2021 Ether value is likely to be surpassed in the future. The “CoinPriceForecast” site predicts that the $10,000 mark will be reached no later than 2026. The “WalletInvestor” platform even expects the price of ether to increase fivefold over the next five years. But views diverge: other experts still point out that all price predictions in the crypto market are dubious.
What is Ethereum?
Ethereum is a decentralized and programmable system based on blockchain technology. The cryptocurrency used for transactions is called Ether. Apart from asset transaction, the system also enables a large number of other applications based on digital contracts, called “smart contracts”. For example, the Ethereum blockchain allows the purchase of “NFTs” – short for “non-fungible tokens”. The Ethereum system therefore offers significantly more use cases than investments in the associated cryptocurrency.
What is Ethereum 2.0?
Ethereum 2.0 is an upgrade of the Ethereum blockchain protocol that has already been implemented in some cases. Ethereum 2.0 – now called the “consensus layer” – has been in the works for several years. With Ethereum 2.0, the computationally intensive proof-of-work method must give way to a so-called proof-of-stake method.
In the first case, the so-called miners update the blockchain, that is, the system’s accounting. Transactions are validated by solving cryptographic arithmetic tasks. For example, the higher the price per bitcoin, the greater the incentive to participate in the mining process. And the more miners involved, the higher the energy consumption.
“Proof of Stake”, on the other hand, means, to put it simply, that those with the greatest crypto assets no longer determine the future of the network, but those with the greatest computing power. You will be chosen as “Accountant” more often due to the random mechanic. With the Proof of Stake approach, the network uses fewer resources as a result, but is also less decentralized.
On which exchanges is Ethereum (ETH) traded?
Ether can be traded on all major crypto exchanges such as Coinbase or Binance. You need your own Ethereum wallet for this. Investors who want to do without can use brokers like eToro, Plus500 and Libertex. These can also be traded with Ethereum via so-called “CFDs” (Contracts for Difference). This means that instead of real ether coins, investors buy digital securities that reflect the price of the cryptocurrency – the so-called “CFDs”. CFDs allow you to speculate on both falling and rising prices. A contract is concluded between the broker and the investor. The latter agrees that the exchange rate difference will be shared between one of the two parties.
Who are the founders of Ethereum?
The two most famous co-founders of the crypto project are Vitalik Buterin and Gavin Wood. Buterin is the author of the white paper that first introduced Ethereum, described it, and outlined use cases. Gavin Wood, a British programmer, was instrumental in the technical implementation of Ethereum.
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