According to a survey conducted by popular comparison website Finder and published in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), various blockchain industry participants expect the price of the top two cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum, to more than triple by the end of the year.
In the survey, nine blockchain industry participants were asked about the potential price trajectory of the world’s top 12 cryptocurrencies. The study interestingly found that the participants were more bullish on Ethereum than on Bitcoin, as they expected Ethereum’s market cap to increase by 212 percent. Bitcoin’s market cap is expected to grow by 194 percent, while Bitcoin Cash is expected to grow 123 percent.
The survey, according to the SCMP, was based on price levels seen on February 27. At the time, Bitcoin was above $10,00 and Ethereum was at $870. This means that, according to respondents, by the end of the year, Ethereum’s price would be at $2,550. Bitcoin would hit $29,533, and Bitcoin Cash would be at $2,721.
The survey’s projections would mean both Bitcoin and Ethereum would see their value more than triple within nine months, as recent price trends saw Bitcoin drop to $8,800 at press time. Ethereum is currently trading at $670.
The expected growth in Ethereum’s market cap is reportedly driven by the applicability of its network, and the growth of initial coin offerings (ICOs) As covered by Hacked, ICO fundraising has topped $1.2 billion in February, bringing the total amount raised this year to $2.7 billion.
Per the SCMP, Ethereum’s price dip is seeing investors buy more, so they can then participate in more ICOs. Si Oh, vice-president at Octagon, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency broker, revealed his firm has been seeing interest in Ethereum pick up, although he revealed interest in Bitcoin is still prevalent.
He said:
“Bitcoin still accounts for an outsized portion of our flows [today]. To put it in perspective, average daily Bitcoin turnover is still more than three fold that of Ethereum.”
Kevin Loo, co-founder and chief strategy officer at CryptAM, a Hong Kong-based digital asset management firm, also told the news outlet he expected Ethereum to have a bright future. Loo pointed out that the cryptocurrency, just like Bitcoin, faces scaling issues, although he believes these are being properly taken care of.
To prove his point, he pointed to the CryptoKitties craze that temporarily congested the network. He stated:
“As an example, in November 2017, the ethereum network saw a new craze for CryptoKitties, a virtual kitten game which lets players buy and breed ‘crypto-pets’. This slows the network down and highlighted one of the challenges facing older blockchains – a lack of scalability.”