Ethereum price continues to slide, correcting by 9% overnight
Crypto bull and ex-hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz still believes Ethereum can scale up to a price point of $5,000 in the near- to mid-term.
- Ethereum (ETH) has lost a whopping 25% of its value over the last couple of weeks.
- On June 25, Ether will witness its largest-ever options expiry.
- As per a leaked report by Goldman Sachs, the banking giant believes Ether can replace Bitcoin as a dominant store of value.
For a better portion of the last 30 days, Ether’s value had continued to consolidate and stabilize around the $2,500 region, leading many to believe that the worst of the ongoing negative downward momentum was finally over. However, over the last 72 hours, the market at large has been faced with an increased amount of bearish pressure, forcing ETH to dip quite drastically once again. At press time, the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world is trading at $1,925.
Providing his thoughts on Ether’s recent stagnation as well as near-term outlook, Kadan Stadelmann, CTO for Komodo, a blockchain solutions provider, told Finder that one possible explanation for ETHs increased dormancy could be related to its uncertainty surrounding a possible revolt among Ethereum miners, adding:
“If 51% of miners disagree with the London hardfork, it could cause a worst-case scenario where Ethereum splits into two separate blockchains, creating a new coin that might be a rival to Ether. This is something that isn’t out of the question, as it has been really common on the Bitcoin network over the past years with Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Diamond and others.”
He went on to state that if the highly anticipated ‘London Hardfork’ — which contains many EIPs, including EIP 1558 — is successful, it could lead to higher prices for Ether for one of two reasons. “First, there will be increased certainty around the future of the network and its move to Proof of Stake. Second, the hardfork will reduce block rewards to make Ether a deflationary asset,” Stadelmann closed out by saying.
Is an ETH bullrun viable anytime soon?
In a recent interview with Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz, the ex-hedge fund manager was asked about ETH as well as the crypto market in general. While the conversation was varied in its overall content, Novogratz did state that thanks to the growth of the decentralized finance (DeFi) space as well as the non-fungible token (NFT) market over the last year, Ether’s price momentum has and may continue to remain “quite wild.”
When asked about where he believes ETH could potentially rise to in the near- to mid-term, he added: “You know, it’s dangerous to give predictions on the highs. But could it get to $5,000? Of course it could.”
Lastly, it should be mentioned that just a little over a week ago, banking giant Goldman Sachs had one of its confidential reports leaked in which a spokesperson for the institution claimed that Ether currently holds a very good chance of replacing Bitcoin as the crypto ecosystem’s dominant store of value (SoV).
Looking ahead
In closing, it should be mentioned that come June 25, ETH will be faced with its largest-ever ‘options expiry,’ with approximately $1.5 billion out of $3.3 billion notional open interest (OI) in ETH options expiring on the said date. To be a bit more specific, the expiry has over 638,000 ETH options contracts in its purview, which works out to nearly 45% of the TOI (total open interest) associated with these options.
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
