Ethereum ETH is currently the second most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization—second to only bitcoin (BTC). In the past, the cryptocurrency has lost this place to Ripple’s XRP albeit for brief spells—the last, for a period of just about a month. ETH price and the Ethereum ecosystem as a whole suffered last year during the extended “crypto winter” when the cryptocurrency prices plunged consistently from their all-time highs the previous year.
Ethereum Price Today – ETH to USD
| Name | Price | 24H % |
|---|---|---|
 | $0.00 | -2.08% |
At the time of writing, 1 ETH is trading for $251.30 according to data from Coinmarketcap with a gain of about 4% from yesterday, ETH price is recovering after it dropped to under $240 for the first time since the last ethereum price surge. Hourly Ethereum live chart indicates the coin is gaining gradually which suggests it would stay above $250 by the end of the day.
Constantinople: The Ethereum Hardfork the paved the way
Though it was plagued with delays, the Constantinople hardfork represents the beginning of the shift from the proof of work system to the proof of stake system which exemplifies the much-anticipated second version of the ethereum blockchain (Ethereum 2.0).
Ethereum Foundation Shows How to Revive a Blockchain Ecosystem
Earlier in the week, Ethereum Foundation released a blog post where it outlined plans to further developments on the ethereum ecosystem. As Smartereum reported, the foundation once clarified that its role is to ensure communication and encourage developments on the ethereum blockchain.
In the post, the Ethereum foundation describes itself as “a resource allocator, a voice in the ecosystem, and an advocate for Ethereum to the world.” As a resource allocator, the not-for-profit organization which currently owns 0.6 percent of all ETH will allocate resources to fund “critical work” and “high-priority projects” through grants and other “innovative funding mechanisms.”
In the next 12 months, Ethereum Foundation said it “plans to spend $30 million USD on key projects across the ecosystem”. Of this amount, the organization plans to shell out $19 million to build the “future of ethereum” which is in an actual sense refers to Ethereum 2.0 as well as scalability developments like State Channels and Plasma. $8 million was earmarked to maintain current projects and $3 million for awareness and developer support.
In the past, the Ethereum Foundation has made a notable financial contribution to the development of the future of ethereum. As Smartereum reported, it allocated a $5 million grant to Parity Technologies to encourage its work on blockchain scaling projects. Other client developers have also enjoyed grants from the Ethereum Foundation.
The Signs of an Ethereum Revival and an Ether Harvest
Last Thursday, the daily trading volume of Ether reached a record high signaling a spike in interest in the cryptocurrency. As a platform for deploying decentralized apps (DApps) Ethereum’s native Ether token gets some of its demand from decentralized app users on the network.
In its heyday, the demand for ETH was driven by Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) which required participants to use the ETH in purchasing the ICO token since the ICOs were launched on the Ethereum blockchain. Those days are far gone but the demand 24-hour trade volume of ETH still reached an all-time high. This could nothing less than a strong interest in Ethereum and hope that its plans will return it as the dominant blockchain for DApps.
Ethereum Price Prediction 2019
“Ethereum’s future is bright,” the Ethereum Foundation Team wrote in its blog post. This could be true going by ethereum price predictions 2019 from a number of cryptocurrency analysts. The rationale behind the positive eth price predictions is that the encouraging developments will position ethereum as the platform of choice for decentralized applications and fintech innovations thereby multiplying the demand and interest for the ETH token.
Riccardo Lopp is a writer specializing in Crypto, ethereum and whole blockchain ecosystem. His background is in economics and statistics.
