Data from TradingView tells us that on crypto exchange Bitstamp Ethereum price reached today\u2019s intraday high of $1604.99 at 00:25 UTC (which was around the same time that the Bitcoin price reached its intraday high of $50,250).<\/p>\n
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According to\u00a0data by CryptoCompare, as of 19:00 UTC on March 2, Ethereum is trading around $1499.23, down 1.7% in the past 24-hour period, but up 103.39% in the year-to-date period.<\/p>\n
Although a 100%+ price appreciation in just over two months is pretty impressive, Ethereum reached its all-time high of $2040.62 less than two weeks ago (on February 20). But even $2000 is nothing compared to some of the price targets that we have seen recently from prominent crypto analysts and influencers. Here, we will look at a few of the more well-known predictions that have been made in 2021.<\/p>\n
First, on January 7, former hedge fund manager Raoul Pal, who is the CEO of\u00a0finance and business video channel\u00a0Real Vision, said that Metcalfe\u2019s Law suggests that \u201cETH might well go to $20,000 this cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Second, on January 22, macroeconomist and crypto analyst Alex Saunders, who is Founder and CEO of Nugget\u2019s News, raised his ETH price target to $10,000, and he gave plenty of reasons for such bullishness:<\/p>\n
Third, on February 26, popular New Zealand-based crypto analyst Lark Davis came up with the same price target as Saunders:<\/p>\n
And finally, Ethereum consultant\u00a0Ryan Berckmans\u00a0explained yesterday (March 1) why he expects the ETH price to reach $20,000:<\/p>\n
He then went on to say:<\/p>\n
- \n
- \u201cEIP-1559 redirects ~35% of miner revenue to ETH holders by burning a portion of fees. Note that this fee redirection is secure because ethereum has temporarily overpaid for security. Last year, we paid miners $300M+ more than if EIP-1559 had been live.<\/em>\u201c<\/li>\n
- \u201cSwitching to proof of stake redirects ~100% of miner revenue to ETH holders. That\u2019s because proof of stake validators are so cheap that they\u2019re effectively free compared to proof of work miners. Yesterday, proof of stake would have saved ~$30M for ETH holders.<\/em>\u201c<\/li>\n
- \u201cEIP-1559 likely launches in July with the \u201cLondon\u201d hard fork. Next year, ethereum switches to proof of stake. Ethereum may produce $20b+ in cash for ETH holders during our first year using proof of stake. imo, this cash machine will greatly help us get to ETH at $20k.<\/em>\u201c<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Ethereum ETFs<\/strong><\/p>\n
On Thursday (February 25),\u00a0CI Global Asset Management\u00a0(\u201cCI GAM\u201d)\u00a0announced\u00a0that it has \u201cfiled and obtained a receipt for a preliminary prospectus\u201d in Canada for CI Galaxy Ethereum ETF (\u201cETHX\u201d). Once it has been launched, it should be the first Ether (ETH) ETF in the world.<\/p>\n
Kurt MacAlpine, CEO of CI Financial, the parent company of CI GAM, had this to say:<\/p>\n
\u201cCryptocurrencies are transforming the financial world, and we are excited to launch the world\u2019s first ETF investing directly in Ether, one of the most highly valued cryptocurrencies\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cCI is quickly establishing a leadership position in this space, having launched CI Galaxy Bitcoin Fund and recently filing a preliminary prospectus for CI Galaxy Bitcoin ETF, in partnership with blockchain and cryptocurrency experts Galaxy Digital. With these funds, we are reducing the friction points that investors have traditionally faced in buying and holding cryptocurrencies. CI Galaxy Ethereum ETF is an important addition to that lineup as this emerging asset class gains increasing interest and validation.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n
CI Galaxy Ethereum ETF will trade on the\u00a0Toronto Stock Exchange\u00a0(STX) under the ETHX ticker. It will \u201cinvest directly in Ether with its holdings priced using the Bloomberg Galaxy Ethereum Index (\u2018ETH Index\u2019), which is designed to measure the performance of a single Ether traded in U.S. dollars.\u201d The ETH Index is owned and managed by Bloomberg Index Services Ltd.<\/p>\n
Well, earlier today, another Canadian firm \u2014 Toonto-based Evolve\u00a0Funds Group Inc. (aka \u201cEvolve ETFs\u201d) \u2014 announced that it had \u201cfiled a preliminary prospectus with the Canadian securities regulators for the Ether ETF.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raj Lala, President and CEO at Evolve, had this to say:<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a leader in disruptive innovation, we look forward to providing Canadian investors with access to another leading cryptocurrency through an ETF structure\u2026 Cryptocurrencies are fundamentally transforming digital finance and Evolve is quickly establishing itself as a leading facilitator for investing in this space. Ether is a digital asset that is not issued by any government, bank or central organization and was intended to complement rather than compete with bitcoin.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n
Evolve\u2019s press release went on to say:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe investment objective of\u00a0ETHR<\/strong>\u00a0is to provide investors with exposure to the daily price movements of the U.S. dollar price of Ether while experiencing minimal tracking error by utilizing the benefits of the creation and redemption processes offered by the exchange traded fund structure.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n
NFT Mania Continues<\/strong><\/p>\n
On Sunday (February 28), Rolling Stone reported that Elon Musk\u2019s girlfriend, Canadian musician Claire Elise Boucher, better known as \u201cGrimes\u201d, was \u201cauctioning off 10 exclusive pieces of digital artwork \u2014 in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) \u2014 for the next 48 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, yesterday, Tyler Winklevoss, Co-Founder and CEO of Gemini, which acquired NFT\u00a0art marketplace\u00a0Nifty Gateway in late 2019, said that Grimes had managed to sell her NFTs for over $5.8 million.<\/p>\n
The Verge, which also reported on the results of this auction yesterday, had this to say about NFTs:<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re totally perplexed as to what\u2019s happening here, welcome to the party. After slowly growing in popularity over the past several months, NFTs exploded over the past week or so as the hot new tech thing\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cNFTs allow buyers to support artists, but it also gives buyers a couple things in return. Buyers may not get to hang these digital pieces on their wall, but they might get bragging rights for\u00a0purchasing a famous work like Nyan Cat\u00a0or something from a popular artist like Grimes. NFTs are also a speculative asset, and many marketplaces have popped up that offer the ability to resell them \u2014 theoretically for a lot more, so long as the hype around NFTs continues.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n
- \u201cSwitching to proof of stake redirects ~100% of miner revenue to ETH holders. That\u2019s because proof of stake validators are so cheap that they\u2019re effectively free compared to proof of work miners. Yesterday, proof of stake would have saved ~$30M for ETH holders.<\/em>\u201c<\/li>\n
![](\"https:\/\/cryptoglobe.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com\/2021\/03\/Screenshot-2021-03-02-at-19.49.00-1-1280x497.png\")
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