The Latest Ethereum News

In 2022, Ethereum has been on an overall downtrend following a larger crypto market crash, in line with the bear market seen in equities. While ETH started the year at around $3850, it lost over 70% in value over the next 6 months, currently bottoming out at $880 in June 2022. This followed a series of interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve that were one of the biggest contributors to the crypto market’s decline.

Since June, the price of Ethereum has been in an uptrend alongside most other crypto coins. However, ETH has seen a 130% increase from its low to its current peak of $2030, compared to Bitcoin’s 43% rise in the same space of time. This demonstrates how keen crypto investors are to snap up Ethereum at these low prices ahead of its upcoming merge - an event one Ethereum developer is calling “one of the most historic crypto events ever”.

Expected to occur in September 2022, the merge will transition Ethereum over to Ethereum 2.0. It will shift the consensus protocol from the resource-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) system to a proof-of-stake (PoS) system. This will allow holders of Ether to “stake” their tokens, locking them away for passive income. In theory, such a move should encourage increased participation on the network as current PoW mining operations are very expensive.

It’s also believed that this merge will turn Ethereum into a deflationary asset. Whereas Ethereum is currently inflationary, Ethereum 2.0 should restrict supply and cause further price increases for ETH over time.

About Ethereum

Ethereum (ETH) is the second most popularly traded cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Its value rocketed to reach highs of nearly $5000 in late 2021 and, since then, has been providing great opportunities for traders looking to exploit Ethereum’s volatility.

Ethereum is a decentralized open source software platform designed to facilitate the development of scalable, programmable, and secure programs. Its native token, Ether, or ETH, powers its blockchain network and is paid to users for keeping the network active. Ethereum’s main feature is smart contracts, essentially self-executing contracts, which power the world of decentralized applications (dApps), NFTs, and decentralized finance (DeFi).

ETH is most commonly traded against the USD, and its value is also priced in US dollars - the most commonly traded currency in the forex market.

Like Bitcoin, ETH is also a digital currency traded on cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide and can be stored in digital wallets. Where it differs from BTC is in the range of applications it offers. While Bitcoin can be used solely as an alternative payment option, Ethereum is the blockchain of choice for developers and even large businesses to begin creating technology based on smart contracts.

Like BTC, ETH is also a digital currency traded on online exchanges worldwide and can be stored in users' wallets. Where it differs from BTC is in the range of applications it offers. While Bitcoin can be used solely as an alternative payment option, Ethereum is essentially a decentralized payment network that offers several applications, powered by the currency Ether.

ETH Breakdown

Ethereum was launched in 2015 as an open-source, blockchain-powered, decentralized platform that supports its own cryptocurrency, Ether. Unlike Bitcoin, the Ethereum platform allows developers to use smart contracts to create dApps, which power everything from NFT platforms to cryptocurrency exchanges.

The Ethereum network is a blockchain-based programming language that lets developers create programs that can digitize transactions of cryptocurrencies and even real-world assets, all using public ledger technology.

The decentralized nature of the network allows encrypted data to be transferred securely without the possibility of counterfeiting or faking transactions, while the network stays largely impenetrable and stable without any oversight.

Ethereum is faster to transact with than Bitcoin - taking around 15 seconds to five minutes, while BTC takes between two to 15 minutes to complete a transaction.

Ethereum Price Prediction

Ethereum History

By market cap, ETH is the second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. The Ethereum concept was first introduced in a white paper by Vitalik Buterin, a developer, in 2014. He was one of the main driving forces behind cryptocurrency and the underlying blockchain technology, demonstrating that there are more use cases in crypto beyond a mere digital transaction medium like Bitcoin.

ETH's blockchain process and applications were developed keeping in mind the inefficiencies of Bitcoin, and with a greater focus on decentralization. The decentralized application (dApp) feature of Ethereum was transformative, with uses that reach much further than just a regular digital currency. In 2022, dApps now facilitate the trading of all kinds of financial assets, including stocks, property, art, and trading cards, as well as powering many of the features promised in the metaverse.

Ether had humble beginnings, trading for around $10 in Spring 2017. But, as developers began creating ERC-20 tokens based on the Ethereum blockchain, ETH skyrocketed to triple digits in a matter of months. By January 2018, prices topped out at around $1400. In the bear market that followed, no one could’ve expected that prices would nearly hit $5000 as investors flooded in to buy up as much ETH as possible.

A major upgrade to the Ethereum network, known as Ethereum 2.0, is currently underway and promises more transactions per second on the network, going from 15 transactions per second to handling tens of thousands of transactions per second. Experts expect Ethereum 2.0 to be released late in 2022.

Ethereum 2.0 will also offer far greater security from attackers through the power of a proof-of-stake blockchain, as opposed to the current proof-of-work consensus mechanism that Bitcoin also uses. This upgrade is expected to reduce Ethereum’s carbon footprint by up to 99.5%.

Ethereum Price Chart History

ETH Price Factors

While the Ethereum price experiences some volatility based on macroeconomic or geopolitical factors, there are several drivers that primarily cause fluctuations in the Ethereum rate, such as:

Availability

Although Ether does not have a fixed quantity like its more popular counterpart Bitcoin, supply of ETH is likely to become deflationary over time with Ethereum 2.0 as coins are ‘burned’, a process where coins are taken out of circulation. Issuance is also expected to decrease from 4% to 0.5% when the upgrade occurs.

Acceptance

As ETH and cryptocurrencies, in general, become more mainstream, it’s expected the price of ETH will rocket as institutions and enterprises enter the network. For instance, in April 2021, the European Investment Bank announced plans to offer a two-year digital bond of the Ethereum blockchain. In the following weeks, ETH’s price skyrocketed by over $1500.

Prior to that, in March 2021, payments giant and crypto competitor Visa announced that they had settled their first transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. As others did the same throughout 2021, the price of Ethereum increased with every release of positive news.

As more innovations occur on the Ethereum blockchain, the greater the interest and, therefore, demand for the Ether token. With the release of Ethereum 2.0, promises of a revolutionary payment system are likely to boost prices even higher.

Rise of dApps, DeFi, and NFTs

The use of the Ethereum blockchain has skyrocketed in the recent bull market with the rising popularity of decentralized finance and NFTs. NFTs, for example, are transacted in Ether the vast majority of the time.

Meanwhile, DeFi might use a different token than Ether for transactions, but being built on the Ethereum blockchain means that they still need to pay Ether gas fees (transaction fees) to complete transactions. This is often done algorithmically but still drives the price of Ethereum higher as demand increases.

Upgrades to the network

As mentioned, upgrades to the Ethereum network are likely to drive price higher to reflect the platform’s added value. Ethereum has been constantly tweaked since its inception, and an upgrade like Ethereum 2.0 that aims to solve the largest issues that ETH faces (high transaction fees, bottlenecks, low transactions per second) will be seen as a massive improvement. Upgrades like this are likely to increase usage of the Ethereum network and therefore drive up ETH’s price.

Government regulations

A key factor that can positively influence the acceptance of ETH is the regulation of the cryptocurrency market by governments. So far, in most parts of the world, cryptocurrencies have failed to become recognized as a legitimate payment instrument, fraught with controversy and volatility, which keeps larger investors and financial institutions away from them.

Regulation by governments and financial authorities can help bring ETH into the mainstream and, therefore, offer it the legitimacy Ethereum needs to attract large investors towards it.

News in the media

As with any new technology, coverage in the media has an important role to play in influencing the price action in the ETH chart. A lack of awareness in the average person about how cryptocurrencies work causes positive media coverage to trigger FOMO in the general population, as news reports of huge price increases draw people in.

Although negative coverage can scare away investors and cause the price of Ethereum to fall, positive reports in the media, like greater interest by institutional investors, government regulation, new and promising innovations, etc., cause investors to flock towards Ethereum off the back of good news.

Trading Ethereum

A good way to get started with trading Ethereum is to depend on an established brokerage that has experience with trading cryptocurrencies and has had a good track record over the past few years.

It is recommended to avoid trading Ethereum with too much leverage, as it’s not uncommon to see price increases of 10%+ in a single day. A good strategy that you can use when trading ETH is 'buy and hold', in addition to 'buying dips'. Some also like to dollar-cost average, which involves buying ETH regularly regardless of the price. This strategy, over time, can pay off significantly if you’re planning to hold ETH for a long time.

Trading Ethereum (ETH) successfully also requires you to develop a sound knowledge of the cryptocurrency market. As a constantly evolving and innovating space, it is important that you keep yourself updated about all the latest developments in the world of crypto. Consider signing up for a course or referring to online guides to gain a basic understanding of how to analyze the ETH chart. Then, pick a reliable news publication to follow so that you can learn all of the latest market-moving news that can impact Ethereum’s price.

Owing to its extremely volatile nature, it is recommended that you keep a close watch on the Ethereum chart on a frequent basis to make the most of any sudden moves. This works especially well in case you want to give the ‘buying the dips’ strategy a try.

Best ETH Brokers

ETH News