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A Fundstrat Global Advisors LLC strategist, David Grider, predicts the Ethereum price to reach $10,500. This is a day after the second most valuable digital asset rose to all-time highs above $1.4k, Bloomberg<\/em> reported on Jan 20.<\/strong><\/p>\n In a note to clients on Wednesday, David said Ethereum has the best risk\/reward investment play in crypto. The strategy further added that blockchain computing might be the future of the cloud, whose risks are only limited to network upgrades and a bear market.<\/p>\n As per the analyst, Ethereum’s exponential price gain is due to the increasing popularity of decentralized finance applications.<\/p>\n These are mostly open-source dApps that ride on the censorship-resistant base layer, enabling people to access financial instruments that were previously accessible to accredited investors only.<\/p>\n The democratization of finance through these applications explains the influx of capital to the sub-sector.<\/p>\n According to Defi Pulse<\/em>, a site that tracks the performance of leading DeFi dApps in Ethereum, open-source finance applications now manage over $23 billion. Year-to-date, this value is up more than 23x.<\/p>\n Due to this rapid expansion, the demand for ETH, the native currency of Ethereum, remains high since it is used to pay fees.<\/p>\n While a direct correlation between ETH prices and the number of funds locked by DeFi dApps, on-chain transaction fees remain at record levels, negatively impacting user experience.<\/p>\n According to BitInfoCharts<\/em>, the average transaction fees in Ethereum on Jan 19 was $8.7, a 7X increment over the last two months.<\/p>\n However, this is also less than $16.5, a level that network users had to pay when ETH\/USD rate rose to above $1,400.<\/p>\n Still, regardless of the high transaction fees, Mark Cuban, the billionaire investor, expects Ethereum to survive if there is a cataclysmic fall in digital asset prices. Mark assesses that the current prices of crypto mirror those of the dot com bubble.<\/p>\n In a tweet endorsing ETH and BTC, he says:<\/p>\n<\/span>Ethereum Stands out<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span>The DeFi Effect<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span>Transaction Fees High, but Ethereum will Survive<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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