Consulting giant Fool analysts have included an altcoin project that will make its investors unhappy in the short term. Crypto analysts say patient investors will be the real winners.
“This altcoin is only suitable for long-term traders”
It would be an understatement to say that last year was just a tough one, as the cryptocurrency market lost roughly 64% of its total value in 2022. In the same period, the situation was slightly different for Ethereum (ETH). The leading altcoin has lost around 70% of its value over the year. Investors are wondering if the trend will reverse in 2023. Fool analysts put forward a price target of $2,500, based on Ethereum’s recent price of around $1,265. This estimate will mean a roughly 100% gain for ETH by the end of the year. In the rest of the article, let’s take a look at how you can do this.
Updates
The Ethereum network saw a major upgrade last year. The Ethereum update, known as Merge, switched the network from PoW mechanism to PoS. The long-awaited transition has made Ethereum a much more sustainable and energy efficient Blockchain.
Merge has updated Ethereum to introduce a new feature called sharding. Sharding basically divides the entire Ethereum network load into different partitions that can have their own smart contracts. According to the official Ethereum website, sharding will be added in 2023. Upgrade to a PoS system coupled with the possibility of sharding paves the way for Ethereum to adjust itself for wider adoption. This is because after these two updates, it is hoped that the fees will decrease and the network efficiency will increase.
These two positive results will remove the two biggest criticisms of Ethereum: it is slow and expensive. According to Bitinfocharts.com, Ethereum can only handle 13 transactions per second today, which is not nearly enough to drive further adoption.
Also, there are still many unknown variables as we look ahead. Fool analysts predict that Ethereum, building an entirely new technology, may face more challenges. Plus, there are all the uncertainties about the new regulation that might come into play after the negative events in the industry in 2022. However, Ethereum bulls now have some tangible progress they can point to for confidence as the network adjusts to reach its long-term potential.
Short-term traders, leading altcoin is not for you
Since its launch in July 2015, Ethereum has delivered a massive 42,000% return over the same period, beating the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite Index. To dig a little deeper, there have been four different calendar years where the Ethereum price has increased by at least 100%. So it’s unlikely to produce that kind of performance in 2023, especially when handling technical updates to the network.
However, no matter how speculative the cryptocurrency market is, it is a wrong mindset to expect such a large price increase in such a short time. No one can predict what the price of Ethereum will be at the end of 2023.
The Federal Reserve’s plans to raise interest rates to rein in rising inflation and actually curb the economy make things a little more complicated. Other major central banks around the world are following a similar path. This has caused investors to turn to riskier assets, including Ethereum. Fool analysts believe that the best way to approach ETH is to invest a small amount and choose to wait many years. That is, “Don’t buy expecting a short-term price increase.”
If you will have such a choice, what levels do the experts expect in the short term, we, as Kriptokoin.com, have included in this article.