Ethereum Price Prediction As $9 Billion Trading Volume Comes In – Can ETH Overtake Bitcoin?

The Ethereum price has fallen 1% in the past 24 hours, amid a 1.5% decline for the cryptocurrency market as a whole. At $1,649, it’s barely changed after a week and is up 6% over the past 30 days, with the biggest altcoin also up 38% since the start of the year.

While ETH is down today, there are several good reasons to expect it to rise soon. Because not only does it continue to be the largest layer-one network by total value locked and apps, but Coinbase has just announced its own layer-two sidechain for Ethereum, which will undoubtedly increase the latter’s use.

Ethereum Price Prediction As $9 Billion Trading Volume Comes In – Can ETH Overtake Bitcoin?

ETH’s chart reveals that, despite bullish news, the altcoin is down likely due to a fall, as suggested by the technical indicators. For example, its relative strength index (purple) had spent much of January above 70, and has now begun to fall this month, falling near 50 in recent days.

At the same time, ETH’s 30-day moving average (red) has topped its 200-day moving average (blue). Again, this suggests that it may be due for a few more losses before it can start to rise again.

So far, however, ETH has stuck to the $1,600 support level. It has not fallen below this price since the beginning of the month, and it is this writer’s view that it is unlikely to do so anytime soon.

There are various reasons for this view, with Coinbase’s announcement of Base, its tier-two solution for Ethereum, massively bullish for ETH.

For example, Coinbase has stated that the goal for Base is to “onboard 1B+ users in the crypto economy.” This effectively means that a billion or more users will be put into the Ethereum ecosystem, since Ethereum will obviously be the underlying settlement layer for Base.

As such, Ethereum will only see increasing usage in the coming months and years. And with that, there will be a greater demand for ETH, which means a rising price.

Equally important, Ethereum was going to see increasing use and adoption over the next few years anyway, given the move to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism in September. This shift has provided the technological foundation to become more efficient and scalable, which will enable it to build on its dominant position.

In fact, Ethereum currently accounts for 58% of the total value locked up by the entire cryptocurrency sector, and this position was secured during the time when the network was a proof-of-work blockchain. In other words, it can only become more dominant from here on out.

And it’s not just Coinbase that is focusing on Ethereum, but even bigger companies as well. This includes Visa, which, aside from being a supporter of Ethereum in general, revealed earlier this month that it is testing USDC stablecoin payments on the Ethereum blockchain.

All of this points to the growing use of Ethereum over time. Meanwhile, in the short term, Ethereum is preparing for the Shanghai Update, which will enable the withdrawal of staked ETH.

Shanghai marks the completion of Ethereum’s transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, given that it allows players to withdraw their rewards. For this reason, it may encourage more people to engage in strike action, as they will know that they will be able to withdraw at any time.

Overall, such growth really paints a bullish picture for ETH, with some analysts predicting that the altcoin is likely to experience higher returns than Bitcoin (BTC) this year.

In fact, ETH could easily rise to $1700 in the next few weeks or days. After that, the completion of the Shanghai update could push it up to $1,800 or even higher, with ETH possibly reaching $2,000 again by mid-2023.

Although such increases will depend on a mining market and global economy, it is worth remembering that ETH’s tokenomics lends itself to larger price increases. For example, EIP 1559 and other updates have given ETH a tendency to become deflationary during periods of higher network activity, in that more ETH ends up being burned than issued.

And given the likely growth in stakes, there is still a very good probability that ETH will experience a supply contraction that will increase its price appreciation. As a result, 2023 could be a very good year for the largest altcoin in the market.

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Alternatives to Ethereum

Although ETH is hugely undervalued right now, it may not see a very big rally for months. Accordingly, we’ve taken a look at other coins with high potential and compiled a list of the top 15 cryptocurrencies for 2023, as analyzed by CryptoNews Industry Talk team.

The list is updated weekly with new altcoins and ICO projects, so be sure to check back for new entries.

^{Disclaimer: The Industry Talk section contains insights from crypto industry players and is not part of the editorial content of Cryptonews.com.}