Ethereum’s next upgrade just hit a new milestone as price cools off
ETH's on-chain data and macroeconomic indicators suggest that the altcoin could be on the verge of hitting AUD$7,000 by the end of Q1 2022.
- The total volume of ETH stored across all centralised exchanges has continued to drop to record lows since August 2020.
- A number of DeFi altcoins have continued to register decent daily gains despite the overall market sentiment remaining largely bearish.
- Vitalik Buterin recently revealed that efforts being made towards ETH's highly anticipated (proof of stake) PoS transition are more than 50% done.
Much like the rest of the crypto market, Ethereum, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency by total market capitalisation, has continued to be on receiving end of a major price dump. Over the past fortnight, the altcoin has registered losses of 5.3%. At press time, ETH is trading at a price point of AUD$5,282.
Despite this poor showing, Ethereum's technical indicators seem to have remained strong. In fact, a combination of technical, macroeconomic and on-chain metrics clearly shows that the digital asset could very well be on its way to hitting the US$5,000 mark (approximately AUD$7,000) by the end of this financial quarter.
As per info released by blockchain analytics firm Messari, the total volume of ETH stored locally in various exchanges dipped to a near 2-year low earlier this week. ETH balanced across all CeFi trading platforms have also continued to remain in a state of constant downtrend since August 2020, alluding to the fact that Ethereum investors may now be beginning to view the asset as a potential long-term store of value (SOV).
ETH's 20% price drop since November 2021 can in large part be attributed to the Federal Reserve's decision to taper off its $120 billion a month asset purchase program that has been in effect since Q2 2020.
Many altcoins register gains despite a bearish market outlook
While investor confidence in the crypto market continues to remain somewhat shaky, with many analysts claiming that a period of extended volatility lies ahead, a number of altcoins, especially those operating within the decentralised finance (DeFi) sector have continued to accrue some serious gains.
To elaborate, over the last 24-hours tokens such as Everest (ID), PAC Protocol (PAC) and Ravencoin have been able to register sizeable profits of around 44%, 34% and 26% respectively.
ETH2 nearly halfway there, says Vitalik Buterin
As part of a recent podcast appearance, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin noted that development efforts related to the altcoin's much-hyped PoS transition were more than 50% done. While he conceded that Ethereum needs to be "more agile and more lightweight" on its blockchain data management capabilities, the first steps towards the same had already been implemented successfully.
Over the coming weeks and months, Buterin noted that he and his team will look to enable certain modules that will allow more users to run nodes, adding: "[This will] democratise access to the broadest number of participants possible to anyone and everyone who wants to verify the validity of the chain." It will be interesting to see how the future plays out for ETH2 from here on end.
Interested in cryptocurrency? Learn more about the basics with our beginner's guide to Bitcoin, dive deeper by learning about Ethereum and see what blockchain can do with our simple guide to DeFi.
Disclosure: The author owns a range of cryptocurrencies at the time of writing.
