Ethereum (ETH) Price Analysis: ETH to $22k? Network activity at a high level, analysts are bullish
TLDR
Ethereum price forecast to go from $4,600 to $22,000 by 2030 Network made $4 trillion in settlements last year Daily gas usage hit an all-time high of $109 billion On September 1st, stable coin volume on chain reached $1.46 trillion.
Ethereum, the second largest by market capitalization, is experiencing significant growth in network activity and adoption. This development has led some analysts to predict significant price increases for ETH in the coming years.
Matthew Siegel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, estimates that by 2030, the Ethereum network could generate up to $66 billion in annual free cash flow.
This prediction is based on the increasing role of the Internet in processing global transactions. Sigel says Ethereum handled about $4 trillion in settlement value last year, plus $5 trillion in stablecoin transfers annually.
“This is much bigger than PayPal and it's starting to approach networks like Visa,” Siegel commented on a recent forum.
Based on these estimates, Sigel suggests that by the end of the decade, the price of ETH could reach as high as $22,000 per token. This represents a significant increase of around $2,300 from the current price.
David Kroeger, a data scientist at cryptocurrency brokerage StoneX, offers a more conservative but still speculative estimate. Kroger sees the price of ETH rising to $4,600 in the next 18 months, which is a further increase to around $12,621.
These price projections are supported by several key metrics that demonstrate strong network activity and adoption. On September 1, Ethereum daily gas usage reached an all-time high of 109 billion, despite recent low gas prices. This milestone suggests that demand for the Ethereum network is still strong.
Ethereum's on-chain stablecoin volume has more than doubled from $650 billion earlier this year to a record high of $1.46 trillion. DAI led the statscoin market at $960 billion, while USDT and USDC continued to dominate.
This increase in the amount of stable coins is related to the growing demand for decentralized finance (DeFi) and the increased participation of traditional financial institutions.
Layer 2 (L2) solutions are playing a vital role in the development of Ethereum. Platforms like Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, and Mantle are driving scalability and adoption, contributing to the network's long-term potential.
Ethereum has recently faced some problems. The network experienced a sharp drop in revenue following the March restructuring, which slashed transaction fees by 95 percent. Siegel acknowledges this setback, but remains optimistic about Ethereum's ability to recover.
“Ethereum still has some levers to pull to get its value,” Siegel said. “That's what we're looking at in the second half of the year.”
As Ethereum enters the final quarter of 2024, a time when trading volume and price movement have historically increased in crypto markets, investors and analysts will be closely watching key metrics such as liquidity.
These ratios have been hovering at relatively low levels between 0.002 and 0.005, indicating the balance between long and short positions in futures markets. Some analysts believe that an increase above 0.015 may indicate the beginning of a new price rally.
