Ethereum set to confound the critics in 2019

Ethereum’s price will continue to soar throughout 2019 and a main driver will be the upcoming hard fork, according to Ian McLeod of Thomas Crown Art.

It has made a bullish move and broken the $125.00 resistance, he observes, giving the critics a robust signal that this digital currency is on the upward trajectory once again. “Ethereum’s rally is part of a wider cryptocurrency rally since the beginning of the year, with other major coins, including Bitcoin and XRP, also securing important gains. The bulls are back in town,” he says.

Whilst we can expect 2019 to be dominated by a considerably more bullish sentiment than in 2018 across the major digital assets, he believes that Ethereum will be the standout winner for the following reasons.

First, the aforementioned hard fork will mean Ethereum miner rewards fall from three ether to two and decrease the block time, resulting in a faster network. This is a key part of a major upgrade and the markets are excited. There was always a possibility the date of the hard fork might be pushed back a little, and traders managed this into expectations.

Second, oracles will inevitably drive adoption of Ethereum smart contracts. This is because smart contracts using decision-making on real-world metrics can be expected to find relevant use cases among consumers, firms, and organisations, amongst others. And, of course, as adoption and utility of smart contracts increase, so will Ethereum’s price.