It is not a secret that Ethereum is the largest and most established Layer-1 network in the blockchain space. Not only does it lead in transaction count, it also accommodates a limitless count of apps that in turn attract their own followship. This being said, Ethereum practically becomes the internet for the blockchain medium and this can only mean one thing. ETH should and will appreciate in value. 

In this article we take a look at the current state of Ethereum and project how long will it take for it to reach its past all time high of $4000. It is also important to note that at the time of writing ETH is trading at $2,502. 

The Internet

Launched in 2014, not many of us expected Ethereum to grow to the size it is today. Size here is not important though, it is the broad and vast utility that truly set the stage for the network. Decentralized finance, NFTs and just about everything else originated on Ethereum first. Then, moved to other networks, that it is fair to admit, sometimes carry a better transaction offering. Yet, with the rise of Layer-2 networks, even transaction price is no longer a boulder that cannot be moved. 

DeFi is self explanatory. The industry has grown into a behemoth that on par with TradFi offers an extensive suite of financial products. It enables users across the world to lend, borrow, provide liquidity and earn yield. Often with a click of a button. There are downsides to it though that have yet not been fixed. Security is still a very open subject in DeFi and users continue to be hacked via bridges, onchain tools, etc. All it takes is for you to connect your wallet to a compromised resource and poof. You holdings go up in flames. 

The inception of NFTs have become another important milestone for Ethereum. Somehow, the degens of the crypto world have decided that anything can carry value as long as someone is willing to pay the price for it. Which in turn establishes the price of an asset. NFTs picked up attention in all parts of the world, greatly increasing transaction volumes on the Ethereum network. 

Today, NFTs are not causing headlines, which is somewhat unfortunate. The technology the non-fungible tokens offer boasts incredibly important use cases. It is just a shame that people primarily see NFTs now as a picture with a price tag that in most cases makes no sense. 

Staking is another integral part of the network. Stakers run nodes that in turn validate the network. Sounds simple until you start digging into types of execution and consensus layer nodes and client software they run on. With the likes of Lido however, it is very easy to become a staker and earn yield on your Ethereum. Connect your wallet, swap your ETH to stETH and start watching your balance go up. 

Having 32ETH puts you in a different league of stakers. That league is called solo staking and yield for solo stakers often gets very lucrative provided their nodes get luck to propose a block and receive respective rewards for it. With all this being said about staking, ever since Ethereum moved from proof of work to proof of stake, the industry just went ballistic with the amount of ETH users started to stake. And there seems to be no end to it, as the protocols continue to see a massive inflow of ETH. 

This was also boosted by restaking. It is when you can take your staked ETH and restake it on EigenLayer for example. By doing this your ETH serves as a trust machine that can validate other networks. Best part about the use case of this is that new chains don’t have to look for validators. They can just plug into the existing network of nodes that can validate transactions for them. 

Types of tools on Ethereum are extensive in numbers and the above doesn’t even cover a fraction. However, it is apparent that there is a go to platform for blockchain builds and that platform is Ethereum. This in turn must push the price of ETH up sooner or later. Most likely sooner. 

It’s not always bright for ETH

Year 2024 hasn’t been a walk in the park for the crypto market and ETH price but it looks like the bull market is finally around the corner, provided no negative news ruin the spike. This year we saw Mt.Gox transfers, Germany’s sell-off and many more events cut the value appreciation right at the origin. The problem is, it looks like there is more to come, so let’s take a look at the obvious potential threats to the price of BTC and weigh in on the probability of a bull run actually, finally, happening. 

Be it a stock market or a crypto market, all markets react to the news. This notion goes up a few notches when we talk about geopolitical instability, which unfortunately we see unravel right at this moment. With Israel and Palestine, Ukraine and Russia, it becomes hard to predict tomorrow and throughout this year, these events have exposed the crypto market to some heavy drops.