After their big rise, cryptocurrencies fell on Friday. However, the second largest cryptocurrency, Ether showed some signs of recovery amid network upgrades.
While Ether fell as much as Bitcoin, falling 10% to around $2.150 early in the afternoon in Hong Kong, it hit a record $2.644 on Thursday. This trend is similar to Bitcoin, which fell from its own record on April 14th. An upcoming upgrade is expected to reduce the supply of Ether, which could help increase its price.
“Ethereum has been in the spotlight for a while,” Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer at Bitfinex, said in a note Thursday. “It’s worth noting its leading role in Decentralised Financing (DeFi) and even the abundance of the NFT market.”
Ethereum blockchain is the most commonly used in the world and has attracted attention in recent months, with activity in areas such as DeFi and non-fungible cryptocurrencies. Over the past year, a group of investors has emerged that has Ether as their first choice or in some cases as the only option, Grayscale Investments LLC said in December. While Bitcoin has grown about 70% this year, Ether has tripled.
Cryptocurrency analysts are also forecasting more profits. Konstantin Anissimov, executive director of the cryptocurrency exchange platform CEX.IO, said the $3.000 level for Ether was “more achievable than ever.”
Of course, this does not mean that everything goes according to plan. Cryptocurrencies are volatile and there are concerns that they could lose value at any time. In addition, Cornerstone Macro LLC said that Ether may have more downside to the market than Bitcoin. However, Evercore ISI technical analyst Rich Ross is a “strong buyer” of Ether. “It remains a BIT better than the Crypto King“, he said in a note Thursday, targeting a price of $3.500.
