According to a recent price prediction survey, the price of Ethereum (ETH) could reach $333 by the end of the year, while the price of Bitcoin could reach $12,948.
The prediction was made by Finder.com, as an average of the responses collected by 28 experts working in the fintech sector.
The survey specifically covered both Bitcoin and Ethereum, but the most interesting results are those concerning ETH.
First, it must be said that almost a quarter of the experts, 23%, said they were worried about Ethereum because of the network scalability problems.
In particular, the transition to Proof-of-Stake, with the introduction of the so-called Ethereum 2.0, is what worries most, because on the one hand it is seen as an inevitable step, while on the other, it is seen as a problematic, if not risky, step.
However, despite these concerns, the panel on average expects an increase in the value of the native cryptocurrency, Ether, which could increase by 11% to $256 by the end of September, and by 44% to $333 by December 31st, 2020.
Some of those surveyed are actually very sceptical. For example, Jimmy Song, author of “Bitcoin Programming”, predicts a downward trend of ETH that could bring it to $97 by the end of the year, stating that he is concerned that Proof-of-Stake is not safe and could end up centralizing Ethereum.
It must be said, however, that many supporters of Bitcoin, and Proof-of-Work, are not necessarily impartial and objective in these analyses.
On the other hand, there are also those who, like the co-founder of the Origin protocol Josh Fraser, believe that the price of ETH will go up to $1,000.
Of the remaining respondents, 38.5% say they are not worried and 38.5% say they are not sure.
64% of respondents also said they believe retail investors should also consider investing in cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin, although they are not always adequately informed about the risks they run in doing so.
According to Messari’s analyst Jack Purdy, Bitcoin and Ethereum are the only two cryptocurrencies to have overall positive sentiment for the next three months, because others are unable to express real use.
He said:
“Bitcoin is the only asset with clear product-market fit as a digital gold. Ethereum is close as it’s becoming a high powered, programmable collateral for the digital financial world. DeFi is innovating at an extraordinary rate which is a strong tailwind for the Ethereum ecosystem”.
As far as the price of BTC is concerned, most respondents say it is now exactly where they expected it to be after the halving, and that it could increase by 61% to $12,948 by the end of the year.
The point is that given the unstable state of the global financial markets, it may take some time before the reduction in supply resulting from the halving could lead to an increase in the value of bitcoin.
With respect to other cryptocurrencies, such as XRP, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), EOS and TRON, respondents’ predictions are negative on average, with estimated losses of between 13% and 16% of their value by the end of the year.
