Say Hello to a $4K Ether: Leading the Charge in the Americas

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Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is inching closer to the $4,000 mark, a price it hasn’t seen since December 2021. It is currently being traded at approximately $3,950. This crypto has been steadily increasing over the past few months alongside the surge in bitcoin’s value, which hit an all-time high on March 5th. Over the last 30 days, ether has outperformed bitcoin, rising 67% compared to bitcoin’s 57% and the CoinDesk 20 Index’s 53% increase. According to Kenny Hearn, the chief investment officer at SwissOne Capital, ether is following in bitcoin’s footsteps and may soon spark a rise in other altcoins. In an interview, Hearn stated, “There is no reason why ETH couldn’t reach the $4,000 level, except for psychological resistance.” He also mentioned, “We believe it will happen within the next 24 hours, as long as the U.S. labor data is as expected.” The U.S. is set to release the February non-farm payrolls report at 1:30pm UTC.

According to JPMorgan (JPM), if bitcoin were to be compared to gold in terms of its allocation in investor portfolios, its market cap would need to double in order to reach $3.3 trillion. However, this is unlikely to happen due to the high risk and volatility associated with cryptocurrency. The report mentions gold as the best comparison to bitcoin because many investors view it as a digital version of the metal. The JPMorgan analysts, led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, stated, “Investors typically take risk and volatility into consideration when allocating across different asset classes, and given that bitcoin’s volatility is 3.7 times higher than that of gold, it is unrealistic to expect bitcoin to match gold in terms of notional amounts within investor portfolios.”

The Optimism Foundation announced on Friday that it has sold approximately 19.5 million OP tokens in a private token sale, totaling around $90 million at current prices. This foundation is responsible for maintaining and developing the Optimism network, a blockchain that runs and settles transactions on Ethereum. The tokens sold are subject to a two-year lockup period, although the buyer may delegate them to third parties for participation in governance decisions, giving them the same benefits as unvested holders.

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