Ethereum is now a proof-of-stake blockchain following the merger. Image: Tomasz Makowski/Shutterstock.com Ethereum (ETH)’s hopes of thriving following the switch from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism were dashed, at least for the time being. The coin fell 25 percent in the three months between the date of The Merge and the beginning of 2023, and it only broke past the price levels it had set around the time of the switch six months later.
After a planned takeover by Binance (BNB) and its subsequent cancellation, the FTX (FTT) exchange collapsed into bankruptcy, causing the market crash that affected other cryptocurrencies to affect ETH as well.
The news caused ETH to fall from a daily high of $1,574.80 on November 8, 2022, to a low of $1,083.29 on November 9, 2022, before rebounding to a high of $1,346.17 on December 14, 2022. It then dropped to around $1,207.49 on January 3 before reaching $1,732.80 on February 15, 2023, thanks to a volatile market.
On November 24, 2022, proposals were approved for a hard fork that would initially be called Shanghai and then be renamed Shanghai/Capella, or Shapella for short. The new version of the updated blockchain could allow users to withdraw staked cryptocurrency and help speed up the system. Shapella should be finished in March 2023, and on February 28, an upgrade will go live on the Sepolia testnet.
The switch to PoS, also known as “The Merge,” which was part of the so-called “Ethereum 2.0 upgrade” on September 15, 2022, had been difficult for ETH. On October 13, 2022, the price of ETH dropped from $1,635 to a low of $1,209.28 as the cryptocurrency struggled in difficult market conditions.
In any case, news that Google (GOOGL) was sending off a blockchain hub facilitating administration, in view of its cloud administration and at first viable with the Ethereum blockchain, assisted the coin with recuperating, and it broke past the $1,500 mark interestingly since the day of The Converge on 25 October 2022.
The Ethereum blockchain’s pioneer, Vitalik Buterin, then reported a new guide for the crypto, including a stage called The Scourge, intended to settle issues with how much ETH that could be extricated at whatever point a block was added to the blockchain, which added to it arriving at a high of $1,661.33 on 4 November 2022, preceding the market fell.
The Ethereum blockchain’s method of verifying transactions has changed as a result of the switch from PoW to PoS. Block validators now stake their capital in native ether (ETH) coins, which are held as collateral in a staking pool against them behaving dishonestly or being lazy, rather than using miners, who use a lot of computing power to validate and create new blocks. The PoS process uses significantly less energy.
The Ethereum blockchain’s economics will also benefit from PoS, as opposed to PoW, which paid miners 5.4 million ETH annually but only 500,000 ETH to stakers. As a result, a portion of the fees for each transaction will be burned, reducing the overall supply of the coin, which could result in ether becoming deflationary and lowering inflation.
That could affect the prediction of the price of ethereum coins.
The Union shouldn’t otherly affect ETH holders. Tokens and blockchain-based smart contracts are unlikely to be affected. dApps, or decentralized applications, should continue to function as before.
The Consolidation shouldn’t essentially build Ethereum’s versatility, as the presentation of shards, what split a blockchain into more modest segments, ought to happen this year.
After sharding is finished, the speed of ETH will increase to 100,000 transactions per second, up from the current 25. Additionally, it will reduce gas costs, making transactions much less expensive.
On September 15, 2022, early in the morning, the Merge took place.
The ETH coin cost dropped forcefully in the principal half of 2022 notwithstanding the methodology of The Converge, as digital money markets turned negative, particularly following the breakdown of the terraUSD stablecoin (UST) and its going with LUNA token in May.
After the fresh insight about The Union’s finish, the coin cost went up, intending that on 15 September it was exchanging at around $1,640. However, the price immediately plummeted, and on September 16, 2022, it was worth approximately $1,450.
The price of ether will continue to fall on October 21, 2022, despite the announcement that investment firm Fidelity will begin offering its clients the opportunity to trade in ether. ETH was the second-largest cryptocurrency by that metric at the time, with a market cap of approximately $156 billion.
ETH reached a high of $1,630.45 on October 31 due to the announcement of the Google node system and a general uptick in the cryptocurrency market, which was at least partially sparked by Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter (TWTR). The coin remained the second-largest cryptocurrency at the time, with a market cap of approximately $194 billion.
It dropped to a low of $1,083.29 on November 9 after falling to around $1,580 on November 7 with a market cap of $193bn. In spite of the news that Visa had presented a proposal to allow holders of ETH to make automatic payments directly from their crypto wallets, ETH fell to trade at around $1,215 on December 21 after reaching a periodic high of $1,346.17 on December 14.
For the next two weeks or so, it stayed close to $1,200, ending the year at $1,194.20 before beginning to recover in January. It broke through to $1,563.74, and the price remained in the $1,500s for the next week or so thanks to a rally. It reached $1,600 on January 18 for the first time since November. There were more highs and lows, reaching $1,530.80 on January 25, but the launch of Shanghai’s testnet helped it recover and reach $1,700 on February 2 for the first time since August. After that, it slowed down, but on February 8, 2023, it was worth about $1,670. On February 15, it reached a high of $1,732.80, but on March 10, it fell to $1,378.53 due to a market decline that was exacerbated by the Silvergate bank’s collapse. However, ETH recovered after that and reached $1,843.84 on March 19, its highest price since September 11, before falling to approximately $1,750 on March 23, 2023.
It was valued at around $214 billion at the time.
The development of ETHW Despite the fact that the markets and a large number of holders of ETH were anticipating The Merge, the miners of the blockchain were concerned that they would lose some of their potential income following the switch to proof-of-stake.
Consequently, a group of miners came together to create ETHW, a version of Ethereum that will continue to use a proof-of-work consensus method. On 12 September 2022, the gathering – calling itself ETHW Center – tweeted that its mainnet would go live in somewhere around 24 hours of The Union.
This happened, and on September 16, 2022, the new coin was worth about $13.45 at one point. However, it subsequently plummeted to approximately $3.05 on January 3, 2023, before rebounding to a high of $5.26 on February 2 and a low of approximately $3.35 on March 23.
Another PoS blockchain, then?
Without proof-of-work, ETH could become just another proof-of-stake blockchain like its rivals, such as Polkadot (DOT), Avalanche (AVAX), and Solana (SOL).
However, other chains, including Tron (TRX), Tezos (XTZ), and Algorand (ALGO), could also benefit. The six cryptocurrencies we mentioned all saw their prices fall at the end of last year, but in 2023, they have all made some kind of recovery.
Additionally, there is the issue of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Since the majority of NFTs, if not all of them, are built on Ethereum, the possibility of multiple forks could make it difficult for some NFT holders to understand exactly what they own and where it is located. That could, in turn, increase the number of NFT scams that advertise items for sale that are not actually available for purchase. Scams involving airdrops and support can also defraud individuals of their funds.
Roundup of Ethereum price predictions Let’s take a look at some of the ether price predictions made on March 23, 2023.
Keep in mind that price projections are frequently incorrect. Also, it’s important to remember that long-term crypto price predictions are frequently made with the help of an algorithm, so they can change at any time.
According to CoinCodex’s short-term ethereum cryptocurrency price prediction for 2023, the price of ETH could fall to $1,634.73 on March 28 and then further to $1,615.69 on April 22. The site’s technical analysis of ether was neutral, with 17 indicators indicating upbeat sentiment and 12 indicating bearish sentiment, which may come as a surprise.
Gov Capital predicted that the price of ethereum would reach $2,586.14 by the end of 2023, rise to $5,041.74 by the end of 2024, and reach $7,321.41 by the end of 2025.
DigitalCoinPrice predicted that ETH would reach $5,676.47 in 2025, which was lower than Gov Capital’s 2025 ETH price prediction. According to DigitalCoinPrice’s projections, the price of an ETH could reach $4,254.26 in 2024 and $3,740.75 in 2023. Based on previous data, the website also suggested that the price could reach around $17,962.12 in 2030.
Based on its AI-assisted technical analysis, PricePrediction maintained a bullish long-term ethereum forecast, predicting that ETH could be worth approximately $2,157.83 in 2023, $3,135.40 in 2024, and $4,556.27 in 2025. The website predicted that the price of ethereum could rise to $31,879.92 in 2030.
It is essential to keep in mind that cryptocurrency markets remain extremely volatile when looking for ETH coin price predictions. As a result, it is difficult to accurately predict a coin’s price in a few hours and even more difficult to provide long-term estimates.
As a result, analysts and forecasters using algorithms can and do make incorrect predictions. We recommend that you conduct your own research if you are thinking about investing in cryptocurrency tokens. Before making any investment or trading decisions, take a look at the most recent market trends, news, technical and fundamental analysis, and analyst opinions.
Never invest any money that you cannot afford to lose because past performance is not a guarantee of future returns.