The crypto market experienced a major comedown in 2022, losing about $2 trillion since its peak in 2021. Bitcoin dropped by over 70% from its all-time high of about $69,000 experienced in November 2021, dragging all altcoins with it. USDT, the world’s biggest stablecoin, dropped below the $1 peg in May, sending panic among crypto investors who used it for their USDT to BTC transactions.
Despite the crash, the crypto market is showing some promise. Let’s see what the two crypto giants — Bitcoin and Ethereum — have in their cards for the near future.
Bitcoin During the Crypto Market Crash 2022
For the first time in a decade, Bitcoin suffered a huge quarterly loss with a 58% drop in value within the second quarter of 2022. The last time Bitcoin suffered a huge quarterly loss was in Q3 of 2011 when it dropped by 68.1%.
June 2022 marked one of the worst months for Bitcoin as it dropped by 39.8%. Overall, Bitcoin has experienced a massive slump in price: from $69,000 in November 2021 to $24,000 in August 2022.
However, Bitcoin started showing bullish trends in the past few weeks. It ended July at about a 20% increase from the June closing price. This made July the month that BTC performed best since October 2021.
Does BTC Have a Bright Future?
Despite the rocky start Bitcoin had in 2022, some experts still believe that BTC price will hit $100,000 by end of 2022.
CryptoNewsz predicts that BTC will go up to a high of $70,000 by the end of 2022. Then in 2023, the BTC price will increase to above $72,000. In 2024, CryptoNewsz predicts that the BTC’s price will reach $78,000 on average.
Priceprediction.net’s BTC price forecast displays that BTC is expected to reach an average of $186,289 in 2026.
Ambcrypto predicts an even higher value for BTC in 2026 with an average of $274,279.58 and $369,103.045 by end of 2027.
Are There Any Improvements to Bitcoin Influencing Its Future Price?
The latest improvement to Bitcoin is the Taproot upgrade, which was aimed at making Bitcoin transactions more private and efficient.
The upgrade created an opportunity for entrepreneurs that might be looking to expand Bitcoin’s utility, narrowing the gap between BTC and ETH in terms of day-to-day applications. Since the upgrade makes BTC more usable, it should impact its value positively.
Ethereum During the Crypto Market Crash 2022
Just like BTC, ETH suffered a massive drop in value in the 2022 crypto market crash. Ethereum dropped down by 78% from the beginning of 2022 falling below the $1,000 mark. So from an all-time high of above $4,000 in December 2021, it went to about $1,800 as of August 2022.
However, Ethereum has been displaying bullish trends since early July 2022, when it traded for just above $1,000.
Does ETH Have a Bright Future?
According to some experts, ETH will have grown in value by 400% at end of 2022. Wallet Investor predicts a 380% ROI for ether in the next five years. Their prediction is that ETH will rise to $7,000 by end of 2022 and $20,000 by end of 2026.
According to DigitalCoinPrice’s prediction, ether should hit $7,000 by 2024, experience a brief drop in 2025, and then continue rising.
Will Ethereum Upgrade Influence Its Future Price Somehow?
The 40% ETH price increase in July is claimed to have been highly impacted by developers’ announcement of the “the Merge” upgrade on the Ethereum network. The launch of Ethereum 2.0 is likely to be a significant factor in increasing the ETH price in the future. It’s aimed at lowering fees while increasing transaction speed, which may translate to more users, thus higher prices.
So, Who’s the Winner?
Generally, most experts are giving positive predictions for the performance of both ETH and BTC. Bitcoin has the privilege of holding the position of the world’s biggest crypto, which makes more people have faith in it. Also, Bitcoin introducing smart contracts through the Taproot upgrade will enable it to increase utility. On the other hand, Ethereum’s established reputation and functionality as well as the upcoming updates create a possibility of massive growth in value for ETH.
The bottom line is that only time will tell which coin wins in terms of ROI in this BTC vs ETH battle. Having both BTC and ETH in your portfolio could be great. However, this is not financial advice. Always carry out extensive research before making investment decisions.
