Ethereum’s cryptocurrency Ether has had an outstanding start to the year, as its value has almost doubled. Many enthusiasts claim that its time is coming and that Ethereum will become even more popular in the near future.
Some of the overall signs of improvement include the increasing number of projects developed on the network, serious investors being interested in it, and more. The entire network has some solid fundamentals and it seems that Ethereum is under the spotlight at the moment and its time to shine has come.
Therefore, let’s take a look at some of the signs that demonstrate how this cryptocurrency is improving and becoming more popular by the day.
Accredited Investors Are Willing to Pay Huge Premiums
The Grayscale Ethereum Trust is an essential link in the process of buying the cryptocurrency. It is mainly used by institutional investors who can invest in the cryptocurrency without facing regulatory issues along the way. In other words, the Trust is established to attract more investors who are experienced and help them avoid the direct crypto purchase process.
These investors are now ready to pay a 220% premium using the Grayscale Ethereum Trust. What does that mean?
Basically, they trust that the network and the crypto will be so successful that they are willing to take a risk by overpaying for their shares. One share of Ethereum Trust is trading for $81.50 at the moment of writing this text. It represents a total of $25.46 worth of Ether, meaning that investors are paying a lot more than the cryptocurrency is worth.
Even inexperienced investors who haven’t been through the Ethereum explained course know that there’s something about the platform and its cryptocurrency that makes them different from the rest.
Ether is a Safe Haven and a Hedge
San Jose University released a study on Ether that focused on data collected around this cryptocurrency from December 2017 to December 2018. The final conclusion was that Ethereum’s cryptocurrency is basically a hedge against gold markets, as well as the US stock market.
Moreover, the study found that Ethereum’s asset behaves much like a gold market safe haven.
This study is not final and much more in-depth research needs to be conducted to confirm these claims. Nevertheless, these statements already prove that Ethereum is doing pretty well among investors.
ConsenSys and Quorum Merger
Quorum is a blockchain project commenced by the largest bank in the US — JPMorgan. However, there are talks going on that Quorum might be merged with ConsenSys. It’s a platform founded by Joe Lubin, one of the co-founders of Ethereum.
Apart from that, the entire Quorum blockchain is built with the help of the Ethereum network. It is planned to be JPMorgan’s digital currency basis.
If the deal becomes a reality, JPMorgan will invest a lot of money in Ethereum’s cryptocurrency. In other words, whoever partners up with the most powerful bank of the most powerful economy in the world is bound to receive huge benefits from it. It just so seems that Ethereum is on its way to do it via the Quorum/ConsenSys merger.
Price of Ether is Skyrocketing
At the time of writing this text, the price of a single unit of Ether is approximately $274. This happens to be the highest price of the cryptocurrency since July 2019.
The price may not be a definitive indicator of the network’s success, but there’s definitely a correlation between the two. The daily gas usage on Ethereum has reached record-high numbers since September 2019, as visible on Glassnode.
Therefore, the number of users is increasing, as well. Compared to last week, the number of Ethereum addresses has increased by more than 21%. Moreover, the number of transactions has also grown by 13.2%.
Decentralized Finance Apps Top $1 Billion
The amount of money currently invested in the so-called DeFi applications has increased to more than $1 billion. DeFi stands for Decentralised Finance and apps built around this idea seem to have attracted a lot of attention from investors.
According to Kin Warwick, the founder of Synthetix, people are starting to understand the benefits of having finance applications on a decentralized platform. The amount of money staked in them definitely proves his point.
Future is Never Certain
Although things are looking pretty good for Ethereum at the moment, and as per the Ethereum forecast, one should not assume that the situation is going to remain the same for a long time. The blockchain industry, as well as the crypto world, is still very young, which means that anything could happen in the future.
What matters at the moment is that Ethereum is doing pretty well and a lot of people are showing that they trust it by investing in it and supporting it in various ways.