 
 
Arthur Hayes, co-founder of crypto exchange BitMEX is predicting ETH will become a five-digit coin in USD terms before year-end.
The former BitMEX CEO has expressed confidence in Ethereum beating odds to hit the $10,000 hallmark, a 3x gain on current prices, citing several reasons for his conviction.
“When the dust settles at year-end, I believe ETH will be trading north of $10,000.” he wrote.
ETH 2.0 Merge – The Boon We’ve All Been Waiting For?
Hayes, who penned a piece two years ago predicting that Ethereum would become a 4-digit coin in USD terms believes that the biggest boost for ETH’s price is the upcoming Merge’ which will completely morph the layer-one network into a Proof of Stake (PoS) validated blockchain.
The pundit who is convinced that ETH is a bond due to the “native rewards issued to validators in the form of ETH-based issuance and network fees for staking ETH in validator nodes” believes that the PoS network will attract a great deal of attention from Proof of Work (POW) critics leaving Bitcoin in the cold.
 
 
“There is a significant amount of money managers that would like to allocate to “crypto” — by which they mean Bitcoin and or Ether — but the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism is considered energy wasteful.” The blog read.
Hence to Haynes, “Sentiment will all change when ETH becomes ESG-friendly” opening up the network to hundreds of billions of dollars from investors who can “now safely invest”.
“As the year progresses and the merge comes and goes, I expect ETH to significantly outperform any L1 chain that constructed a narrative that it is “faster and cheaper” than Ethereum.”
Ethereum’s Robust DApps Ecosystem
Furthermore, he believes that Ether’s growth is also tied to its DApps ecosystem. According to DefiLlama, the Total Value Locked in Ethereum based protocols is currently over $140 billion, making it the largest DeFi ecosystem, which according to Hayes, is also a screaming bullish signal.
He argues that unlike Ethereum which ‘is a commodity that powers the world’s largest decentralized computer’, Bitcoin is considered purely as a store of value placing a high gardened wall on investors who would like to splash their money into growth networks.
More Ethereum and Solana; Less Bitcoin
That said, he asserts that he plans on reducing his Bitcoin holdings significantly to scoop up more Ethereum and Solana, convinced that prices retesting or moving beyond November highs is nigh.
“My crypto portfolio at the beginning of 2022 was 50% Bitcoin and 50% Ether.’ he wrote. “Therefore, my target allocation is 25% Bitcoin and 75% Ether… and Solana to $200 -a roughly 2x return. Would you be happy owning Solana? Surely yes.
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