Overview
- Singapore’s crypto crackdown
- Celsius lawyers not in favor of retail
- FBI crypto fraud warning
- Lido DAO investment round
- Aave partners with Pocket Network
- RUNE token leaving Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain
Good morning Banter Fam,
As we watch crypto orchestrating an excellent relief rally, it begs whether it can continue considering the turbulent macro environment.
It would be nice if we had a panel of experts to consult. Fortunately for us, there’s a way to tap into the opinions and predictions of these mega minds.
Finder.com conducts occasional surveys that gather predictions, thoughts, and analyses of over 50 fintech experts. Today they released the survey results that cover various aspects of price predictions complemented by a few opinions. On July 13th, Finder.com released a similar report for bitcoin.
Today, the newsletter will summarize the Ethereum report. Let’s dig into the experts’ brains.
Expert Price predictions for Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin in 2022
ETH price predictions for 2022, 2025, and 2030.
This month’s reports show tempered results compared to previous surveys, with ETH hitting a consensus high of $1,711 by year’s end, $5,739 by 2025, and $14,412 by 2030. That’s a significant change when compared to the April report. Although, a large number of experts predict price could hit $3000-4000 by year’s end.
Bottom price predictions
The experts are a mixed bag when it comes to predicting a low for ETH, but a majority believe it’s between $500-800 noted in the chart below.
Is the merge good for Ethereum?
78% of the experts believe The Merge will positively impact ETH price, and 54% assume the impact will occur immediately to 3 months after.
When asked if they would BUY, HOLD or SELL ETH, 84% believe it’s a great time to hodl or buy. Only 16% disagreed. I like those odds!
Conclusion
Experts mostly agree that ETH is a good purchase at present but macroeconomic headwinds have tempered expectations significantly in the past couple of months. It’s interesting to see how quickly sentiment reaches even the most experienced players. Notably, a few experts mentioned that Ethereum faces stiff competition and could lose its reign as the top smart contract platform, but others see Ethereum flipping Bitcoin in the future.
Net-net, the results seem positive for ETH’s future price, but investors may have to weather a macroeconomic storm in the short-term to reach the light at the end of the tunnel.
Market update 🌍
BTC/USDT
Nice move Bitcoin! Bitcoin broke through a key downtrend and resistance with authority today, bringing BTC into the $23,000s for the first time in a month. A likely scenario is the retest of the former resistance of $22.2k turned support. However, the volume hasn’t risen considerably, and the price will remain volatile regardless of direction. BTC completed the daily session up 4.27% at $23,396.
High-resolution chart
BTC.D
Bitcoin dominance (BTC.D) broke its uptrend, which ultimately bodes well for altcoins. Moreover, it signals investors’ interest in taking elevated risks by looking beyond Bitcoin. BTC.D currently sits at 43.08%.
NASDAQ
The Nasdaq (NDAQ), an index that follows tech in the traditional markets, appears to be breaking out of a triangle pattern after a month of downtrend action. Crypto remains highly correlated to the tech sector at the moment. Ultimately we’d like to see a decorrelation between the two, but for now, any positive price action in NDAQ is positive for crypto.
High-resolution chart
| US markets close | Gain |
| S&P 500 | -1.15% |
| Nasdaq | +0.66% |
| Dow | -0.72% |
| VIX | +6.13% |
Notable Gainers (24h):
| Protocol (Coin) | Price ($) | Gain (%) |
| Flow (FLOW) | 2.06 | +24 |
| Waves (WAVES) | 6.23 | +16 |
| Enjin Coin (ENJ) | 0.64 | +16 |
| Fantom (FTM) | 0.33 | +15 |
| NEM (XEM) | 0.05 | +14 |
| Zilliqa (ZIL) | 0.04 | +13 |
| Mina Protocol (MINA) | 0.79 | +12 |
| Lido DAO (LDO) | 1.60 | +12 |
| Stacks (STX) | 0.46 | +12 |
| Yield Guild Games (YGG) | 0.84 | +20 |
| dYdX (DYDX) | 2.37 | +16 |
| Ankr (ANKR) | 0.03 | +16 |
| Harmoney (ONE) | 0.02 | +15 |
| Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index | 31 Extreme Fear |
| “Crypto” Google Trends 90d | 16 |
| “Bitcoin” Google Trends 90d | 29 |
Newswatch 📰
Singapore’s crypto crackdown. With numerous issues relating to Terra, Babel Finance, Vauld exchange, and 3AC, the Singaporean government looks to increase restrictions for retail investment into crypto, aligning with international regulators.
Celsius lawyers not in favor of retail. To reduce responsibility, the firm’s lawyers argued in court that Celsius users relinquished legal rights to funds when they accepted the terms of service. For the sake of retail investors, it isn’t very reassuring to hear the lawyers taking this approach.
News Tidbits
- Crypto.com and Coinbase secure regulatory licenses in Italy.
- FBI warns retail investors of crypto-related frauds in a recent report.
- US Justice Department seizes 500k of North Korean crypto acquired through hacks.
- List of firms/protocols that lent money to 3 Arrows Capital.
At the protocol level ⛓
Lido DAO (LDO) opens an investment round. The Lido DAO has opened a proposal to sell 2% of LDO at $1.45. Investment firm Dragonfly leads the investment possibility by purchasing 10m unlocked LDO tokens.
Aave partners with Pocket Network. Crypto lending protocol Aave will now use Pocket Network’s 44k nodes to access on-chain data to boost scalability and decentralization.
THORChain to retire RUNE token on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain. The cross-chain decentralized exchange has begun phasing out RUNE wrapped tokens on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain after finding the tokens are vulnerable to exploits. The team will phase out the token in the next 12 months.
NFT & metaverse update 🐵
- OpenSea Solana Launchpad. NFT exchange OpenSea kicked off its Solana Launchpad experience on the platform. Creators can launch NFT projects on the Solana blockchain from the site itself.
- Yuga Labs warns of a possible coordinated attack that looks to target compromised social media accounts. Take precaution!
Banter’s take
Experts predict an ETH price of $14k, and a BTC price of $314k by 2030. All in all, that paints an encouraging picture for the future of crypto.
BTC and ETH are the least speculative cryptocurrencies on the market and, in my opinion, should constitute a large portion of any crypto portfolio. All the other altcoins pose a SIGNIFICANT amount of speculative risk.
So, while I’m not against buying various altcoins (I have a large variety in my portfolio), I still believe holding the top ponies for the long term is the safest, most efficient, and secure strategy any investor could undertake.
Yes, simple and boring, but in the long run, I believe you’ll outperform most of your peers.
Gabri
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Disclaimer
Good Morning crypto (issued by Crypto Banter) is a newsletter for entertainment purposes only.
All opinions expressed by the publisher, writers, and chartists should not be construed as financial advice and do not necessarily reflect the views of Crypto Banter. The publisher, writers, and chartists may hold positions in the tokens and assets discussed. Readers are encouraged to do their own research.
