The MANTRA (OM) token’s wild crash on Apr 13, 2025, shocked the crypto world. Discover the causes, fallout, and what’s next in MANTRA’s road to recovery.

In the morning and daytime hours of Apr 13, 2025, the MANTRA blockchain's native token, OM, sat at a respectable market cap of $6 billion, making it the third-highest-ranked cryptocurrency in the 

 (RWA) category, the area the platform specializes in. Everything seemed like smooth sailing for the token.

Then, just after 6 PM UTC, the price of the OM token suddenly began to free-fall, declining from nearly $6 to about $0.50 in the space of just two hours.

A project that started the day as one of the top players in the RWA field was now worth 90% less as the evening approached. OM's abrupt, sharp crash immediately caught the market's attention, with speculation of a 

However, MANTRA's CEO, John Patrick Mullin, immediately sprang into action for PR damage control on social media, reassuring the public that the team members weren’t dumping OM tokens at all. Instead, MANTRA's founder and CEO alleged that deliberate actions of some 

 (CEXs) had caused the catastrophic plunge.

As of our coverage date of Apr 23, 2025, this is a developing story. In this article, we’ll establish what actually happened, who's involved and what awaits the OM token in the foreseeable future.

 decentralized network dedicated to RWA tokenization and utilization in compliance with real-world regulatory requirements.

 It features high scalability and low transaction fees. The project is one of the earliest initiatives dedicated to RWA use via blockchain technology. Originally, MANTRA debuted as a 

 (ETH) in August 2020. In October 2024, the project migrated to its own dedicated Layer 1 platform, the MANTRA Chain. The MANTRA blockchain is based on the Cosmos SDK framework, and is part of the wider 

The MANTRA ecosystem's main products include MANTRA DEX, a 

 (DEX); a digital identity (DID) management tool; a compliant token development and management solution; and a comprehensive compliance and permissioning system. MANTRA has also partnered with global powerhouses like Google Cloud, and with DAMAC Properties, one of Dubai's most prominent developers, to propel innovative solutions for 

Starting in late 2024, right after its own dedicated mainnet launch, MANTRA had become a significant player in the RWA corner of 

 (DeFi). By late February 2025, the platform’s native OM token had climbed to a value of nearly $9, with its market cap peaking at around $8.2 billion. Before the fateful events of Apr 13, 2025, OM was the third-highest-capped crypto in the RWA category, trading at $6.27, with a market cap of slightly over $6 billion, according to the CoinGecko portal.

In the evening hours (UTC time) of Apr 13, 2025, OM began to lose its value precipitously, dive-bombing from over $6 to about $0.52 in the space of two hours. The token’s market cap fell to slightly under half a billion dollars — a loss of more than 90%.

CEO John Mullin was quickly online, reassuring the crypto community that no team member had sold their OM holdings, and that this wasn’t a case of the bad ol’ rug pull. Instead, Mullin alluded that after OM tokens were moved to two leading CEXs (Binance and OKX) to use as collateral, the exchanges initiated a cascade of 

 of positions backed by the token. Both exchanges refuted the allegations, and connected OM’s price collapse to its recent unusually high price 

, and significant tokenomics changes made to OM in October 2024 that greatly undermined its value.

As a chain of liquidations took place, the token’s price started to plummet, causing significant panic that quickly led to further price drops. The situation only stabilized closer to the end of the day, with OM’s price remaining under $1. As of Apr 23, it’s trading at $0.5543 — a far cry from its rate of over $6 just two weeks ago.

After investigating, crypto analytics firm Lookonchain concluded that 17 wallets had deposited 43.6 million OM tokens (4.5% of the token's circulating supply) into the implicated exchanges. Two of these wallets are believed to belong to Laser Digital, one of MANTRA's investors. Another investor in the project, Shorooq Partners, is also suspected to be among the 17 wallets. Both Shorooq and Laser Digital have denied the allegations.

Although the price plunge was immediately compared to the 2022 collapse of the 

 (LUNA) blockchain, many analysts point out that the two crashes are fundamentally different. Terra's crash resulted from structural abnormalities in the 

 regulating UST, the project's stablecoin. In contrast, OM's fiasco is suspected to be the direct result of market-driven manipulation by 

, and possibly exchanges. No security breach, disruption to services or data, or other adverse structural events have occurred on the platform.

While this development is unprecedented for the project, MANTRA has been embroiled in other controversies throughout its history. One of these was its 

, first announced in August 2024 and then delayed multiple times. Around 50% of the wallets believed to be bots were cut off from the airdrop list. However, many considered the bot-culling process to have been conducted without much proof.

There have also been reports of vote rigging in the project's governance system in a bid to obscure MANTRA’s centralized model of profit allocation. Additionally, some analysts have accused the project of "forced bridging" to manipulate the market price. Platform users had to migrate their Ethereum-based OM tokens to MANTRA's native OM tokens via 

, which would increase gas fees and allow the project team to control the token's circulation pace.

How is MANTRA (OM) headed toward recovery?

MANTRA’s CEO rapidly reassured users that the team is now working hard to jump-start the token’s recovery. On Apr 14, 2025, Mullin unveiled plans to initiate a buyback scheme, along with the intent to burn all OM tokens held by the project team. The team's supply totals 300 million tokens, representing about 17% of the total supply.

He also denied factually incorrect assertions circulating online that the team effectively controls 90% of OM's supply. Mullin further assured the public that no large-scale selling events by investors have occurred.

As OM’s value has stayed firmly under $1, it remains to be seen how these PR efforts — as well as the planned buyback and burn — will affect the token’s future.

 as a swap pair with USDT, or on the Derivatives market as the 

Naturally, given the ongoing situation with the OM token, buying OM is at your own discretion, as right now the token is truly for the adventurous and brave at heart.

As of Apr 23, 2025, the OM token is trading at $0.5543, 93.8% lower than its ATH of $8.99 on Feb 23, 2025, and 3,138.8% higher than its ATL of $0.01726 on Oct 12, 2023.

Curiously, most crypto price prediction portals are optimistic about the OM token's long-term prospects. DigitalCoinPrice 

 of $1.81 in 2027 and $2.82 in 2030, whilePricePrediction 

It's hard to verify all the allegations flying around regarding the involvement of exchanges and key investors in the MANTRA OM incident. What matters at this stage is that the project team has been quick and proactive in injecting transparency and clarity into the situation.

The free fall in the token's price seems to be over by now. In fact, OM’s decline was over within hours of the incident. Moreover, unlike Terra's LUNA and UST coins, OM hasn't become worthless. All these factors point to potential stabilization and recovery ahead. The question now is: Will the pace and magnitude of the recovery be enough to save the project in the long term? At this early stage after the collapse, few people could answer the question with confidence. We'll eagerly await the developments over the next few weeks to see if MANTRA finds its way out of the woods. 

Intermediate

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MANTRA (OM): Understanding its wild ride and road to recovery

In this article, we explore WalletConnect's features, its native token (WCT) and how you can trade WCT on Bybit Spot and Futures.​

WalletConnect is an open source bridging protocol that facilitates secure connections between digital wallets and 

 (DApps). With over 38 million unique active wallets and 57,000 supported apps, it’s getting noticed by the crypto community. In this article, we explore WalletConnect's features, its native token (WCT) and how you can trade WCT on Bybit.​

 protocol that allows users to connect their mobile wallets to DApps via QR code. This eliminates the need for browser extensions, and enhances security by keeping 

The protocol supports a wide range of wallets and DApps, making it a versatile tool for users navigating DeFi and web3.

 is essentially a decentralized infrastructure that facilitates a uniformed way for users to easily connect their crypto wallets with thousands of DApps. It operates through a network of

 that relay messages, ensuring reliable and secure connections. The network's design emphasizes scalability and resilience, catering to the growing demands of DeFi. 

When a user initiates a connection between their wallet and a DApp, WalletConnect establishes a secure session through a relay server that enables encrypted communication, allowing users to interact with DApps directly from their wallets. 

The network's architecture ensures that messages are transmitted efficiently, maintaining a seamless user experience.​

The WalletConnect ecosystem comprises various stakeholders, including node operators, wallet providers and DApp developers. Node operators play a crucial role by maintaining the network's infrastructure and relaying messages. 

To incentivize participation, the network implements a rewards mechanism whereby node operators earn WCT tokens, based on their performance and contribution. Prominent organizations like Consensys, Ledger and Figment are among the network's node operators, underscoring its robustness and reliability.​

 is the native utility and governance token of the WalletConnect network. It has a total supply of 1 billion, 

Initially, WCT is nontransferable to ensure that tokens remain within the WalletConnect ecosystem, supporting its focus on network functionality and development. Based on discussions within the community, transfers will be enabled based on community consensus and future governance decisions.

Where to buy the WalletConnect token (WCT)

 on Bybit Spot, and as a Perpetual contract with up to 75x 

. Bybit provides a secure and user-friendly platform for buying and selling WCT, allowing users to participate in the WalletConnect ecosystem. 

How to trade the WalletConnect token (WCT) on Bybit

Bybit's platform ensures efficient execution and provides various tools to assist users in their trading journey with ease.​ 

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WalletConnect (WCT): Bridging web3 beyond wallets and DApps

Circle has launched the Circle Payments Network (CPN), a global payment solution designed to streamline cross-border transactions using stablecoins like USDC and EURC for real-time settlement. 

The S&P 500 rose 2.51% as investor confidence improved following President Trump’s support for Fed Chair Powell and hints of easing U.S.-China trade tensions, despite tempered optimism and Tesla’s earnings miss. Gold rebounds toward $3,400 as the US Dollar weakens and investor caution lingers over US-China trade and Fed concerns. Technicals suggest a possible pullback, with focus shifting to upcoming S&P Global PMI data. The Coindesk Indices, which tracks the broader crypto market, rose 7.46%, with Bitcoin and Ether up 4.68% and 7.70%, respectively, in the past 24 hours. Trade these markets and more with up to 500x leverage on Bybit MT5 using this 

Today's top performer is DEEP, up 122.1%, following the launch of DeepBook v3.1 on Sui, which unlocks permissionless pools, enhanced balance management, and cost-efficiency for DeFi.

DeepBook (DEEP), launched on July 12, 2023,  is Sui’s native liquidity layer, using a central limit order book to enable high-throughput, low-slippage, and low-fee trading. 

, introduces several key upgrades: permissionless pools, revamped fee mechanics, and enhanced balance management. These changes make DeepBook more accessible, composable, and cost-efficient for DeFi users. Permissionless pools allow anyone to create custom trading pairs, while the enhanced balance manager supports third-party liquidations and improves protocol stability and user experience.

Check out the latest prices, charts, and data of 

, a global payment solution designed to streamline cross-border transactions using stablecoins like USDC and EURC for real-time settlement. CPN offers faster, programmable, secure, and always-available money movement for financial institutions. It supports services like invoice payments, remittances, treasury services, and payroll payouts. Over 20 design partners, including dLocal, WorldRemit, and BVNK, are contributing to building a more efficient global payments infrastructure.

Yesterday, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw $719.2M in total inflows, with $654.1M from non-GBTC funds and $65.1M from GBTC.

 its incentivized testnet, allowing users to earn $SO tokens by testing its cross-chain lending platform. By supplying and borrowing assets across chains and completing quests, participants earn "Seeds," which will convert to $SO at TGE. Powered by LayerZero, Soul aims to unify liquidity across blockchains.

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Circle launches Circle Payments Network for faster, secure global transactions using stablecoins

VeChain (VET) is a blockchain platform focused on sustainability, using eco-friendly technology to support green initiatives across industries and drive a more sustainable future.

Sustainability is now the name of the game across many industries. The blockchain industry is one of them, with several projects aiming to reduce the energy impact of their operations or support green causes in other ways. However, on closer inspection, sustainability has received much less attention in the world of blockchain technology than many people may assume. Indeed, the industry's two leading data portals, CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap, have no "Sustainability" or similar category, despite coming up with hundreds of other classifications.

Some smaller-cap projects outside of the top 100, such as 

 (IOTA), do focus on supporting environmental causes. But in the entire list of top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, only one project can confidently be described as having sustainability as its key pillar — 

With a market cap of $2 billion (as of the time of writing on Apr 22, 2025), VeChain stands head and shoulders above any other crypto project in the sustainability niche. The project has been fully operational since 2018, and is among the oldest environmentally focused blockchain initiatives. In short, if we talk about sustainability and blockchain, it would be disingenuous not to mention VeChain and its 

Having championed green blockchain causes since 2018, VeChain announced a significant upgrade initiative in late 2024 to be rolled out in stages during 2025. Called Renaissance, it’s envisioned to further solidify VeChain's position as the leader of eco-friendly blockchain use and introduce a host of technical improvements. In fact, 2025 is the year of the most fundamental upgrade to this notable industry player in its entire history on the market, so it's precisely the time to revisit this project in our coverage.

VeChain (VET) is a decentralized project designed to support sustainability-focused blockchain use cases across various industry verticals.

 The company was first conceptualized and founded as a blockchain project in 2015 by Chinese technology professional Sunny Lu. It launched its Layer 1 network, VeChainThor (VTHO), in mid-2018, becoming one of the first decentralized initiatives to support eco-friendly applications on-chain. The VeChainThor network features low transaction fees and high levels of scalability.

For years, the VeChain blockchain has remained probably the leading decentralized platform in the niche of sustainability. As of April 2025, it retains the leadership position, and is ranked 56th among all cryptocurrencies, with a market cap of $2 billion.

VeChain's sustainable blockchain technology

Many blockchains claiming to support environmental causes typically use the 

, which is indeed much more energy-efficient than the power-hungry 

 (BTC). By using PoS, these blockchains have boldly announced that their energy use is much lower than Bitcoin's. While this is true, these platforms are essentially general-purpose networks that don't specifically design their operations with any particular sustainability use case in mind.

Instead of these two typical consensus mechanisms, the VeChainThor blockchain uses 

 (PoA), touted to be even more energy-efficient than the standard PoS employed by 

 chains. In a typical PoA consensus, a smaller number of validators with "authority" — i.e., a history of reliable behavior on the network — are entrusted to process blocks. This is in contrast to PoS, whereby many validators take part in the staking contest to outperform each other in terms of token holdings. They then receive the right to validate the next block, and have to constantly align their consensus process with other 

As a result, PoS is usually less energy-efficient than PoA. VeChain's PoA model elegantly combines efficient processing, minimal energy use and high levels of enterprise-grade security.

The VeChainThor blockchain network's processing engine also features compatibility with the 

 (EVM), making cross-chain communication with the Ethereum world much easier for VeChain developers and 

PoA block validation isn’t the only sustainability-minded feature of VeChain. Unlike many other popular chains, VeChain also directly enables sustainability use cases, primarily by utilizing its tamperproof and transparent data-tracking mechanism. Thus, enterprises across different industries can track and reliably verify the origin of goods and their sustainability status for eco-friendly supply chain management. For instance, supermarket chains can use the platform to track and verify the carbon footprint of the produce they source; logistics companies can calculate the overall emissions generated along their supply chains; and fashion brands can track sustainable sourcing of materials used for their product lines.

Besides its own blockchain, the project also offers a blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) platform, VeChain ToolChain, to help businesses integrate VeChain's technology into their business processes via standardized smart contract services.

To further position itself as a champion of sustainability, VeChain launched 

 represents an on-chain ecosystem of DApps that reward VeChain users for completing various eco-friendly tasks, such as using reusable coffee cups, shopping for organic products, picking litter off streets and more. VeBetterDAO is the project’s foray into the individual consumer side of environmentalism, which complements the VeChain platform’s long-standing sustainability features for the enterprise world.

In late 2024, VeChain first announced its planned multi-stage upgrade, Renaissance, to make the platform even more efficient. Its changes are envisioned to take place gradually throughout 2025, and possibly beyond. The Renaissance upgrade touches many parts of the platform, with three key areas involved — a new VeChain staking and node model, technical updates and changes to the dual token mechanism. We'll cover the first two areas below, and the changes to VeChain’s tokenomics in the next section.

VeChain’s PoA block validation model uses a group of 101 trusted Authority Masternodes (AMs) who will fully transition to Validators under the new Renaissance model by December 2025. Each Authority Masternode is approved by the VeChain Foundation. These nodes are responsible for generating transaction blocks. You’ll need to 

 at least 25 million VET to participate in block production, which occurs in fixed 14-day cycles.

Under the platform’s pre-Renaissance model, there are two more types of specialized nodes — Economic and X-Nodes — who stake their tokens to a selected AM/Validator and participate in 

 on the platform. After the Renaissance upgrade is fully rolled out, Economic nodes and X-Nodes will be replaced by a tiered system of Delegator nodes.

Delegators will need to stake a certain amount of VET tokens to mint Delegator 

, which will entitle them to different grades of staking reward multipliers. The more you stake, the higher grade of NFT you receive, and the higher your staking rewards will be. When blocks are produced, AMs/Validators will receive 30% of the total block reward, with the remaining 70% going to holders of the Delegator NFTs.

The image below shows the new Delegator NFT–tiered model, with minimum VET staking requirements and reward multipliers.

While the VeChainThor network is EVM-compatible, there are still differences between its technical parameters and the standard EVM used by Ethereum. For this reason, the Renaissance upgrade aims to reach full EVM compatibility, including implementing the JSON-RPC (

remote procedure call) extensively employed within the Ethereum blockchain.

As part of the Renaissance upgrade, the project will also introduce a new set of tools to achieve more seamless cross-chain capabilities. This will involve integrating new 

The VeChain token model has always been based on two cryptocurrencies: VET and VTHO. VET is the 

 that acts as the main means of value storage and transfer on the platform, while VTHO is used to pay for gas. Now, the Renaissance upgrade also changes the way the dual-token mechanism operates.

Before the upgrade fully kicks in, VTHO is still generated by simply holding VET. After the Renaissance, only staked VET will generate new VTHO for the holder. This should better align VTHO with the active participation of users on the platform. VTHO's inflation rate will also be cut by over 70%, as its issuance will be aligned to a new emission model that considers the total amount of VET staked on the platform.

To further reduce the inflationary properties of VTHO, 100% of all base transaction fees on the network, which are all paid with VTHO, will be 

VET is the platform’s value transfer and storage token. It’s also used for governance and access to various features and apps on the network. VET is a supply-capped token with a max supply of just over 86.7 billion. These properties will not change following the Renaissance upgrade.

VTHO, which is used to pay for gas fees on VeChainThor, is an inflationary token with an uncapped supply. It currently has a total supply of almost 88,7 billion. As noted above, after Renaissance, VTHO will be generated via staking only, and will feature a burn mechanism to reduce its inflation rate.

 as a swap pair with USDT, and on the Derivatives market as the 

In addition, you can take advantage of Bybit’s event dedicated to the VET token to grab a share of a 

. New users can earn VET rewards by accumulating a deposit volume of at least 5,000 VET, or by depositing at least 100 USDT and trading 100 USDT worth of VET via their first Spot trade using their Bybit account. Meanwhile, existing users can also qualify for rewards by trading at least 500 USDT worth of VET on the Bybit Spot market. The event runs through Apr 28, 2025, 9AM UTC.

As of Apr 23, 2025, the VET token is trading at $0.02576, which is 90.8% lower than its ATH of $0.281 on Apr 19, 2021, and 1,243.2% higher than its ATL of $0.001917 on Mar 13, 2020.

Long-term price forecasts for VET are mostly bullish. DigitalCoinPrice 

 of $0.088 in 2027 and $0.14 in 2030, while PricePrediction 

In the long term, VET might even rise to $1, at least according to PricePrediction’s forecast. Its portal is highly optimistic, estimating that VET will hit the $1 mark in 2034.

You might consider investing in the VeChain token VET based on the following:

When Sunny Lu created VeChain in 2015, his vision focused on sustainability issues. VeChain's work in this area has led to the creation of the first decentralized network truly dedicated to making a tangible environmental impact. The entire VeChain ecosystem — including the VeChainThor blockchain platform, VeBetterDAO and VeChain Toolchain — continues to serve as a significant enabler of sustainable technology in the business world.

Now, with the Renaissance upgrade being rolled out for the duration of 2025, VeChain aims to solidify its leadership in this sphere. With the Renaissance upon us, it's hard to see any blockchain platform that could challenge VeChain in the area of sustainability anytime soon.

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What is VeChain (VET): Building a sustainable future for all

Altcoins

Crypto

Ethereum (ETH) is a good investment, but what exactly contributes to this conclusion? Here's what you need to know about its projects to their value.

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 on August 4, 2021, as a stepping stone to Ethereum 2.0 integration sometime in 2022. This begs the question: Is Ethereum going to be more sustainable? How will these upgrades impact the future price of Ether (ETH), in addition to the nerve-wracking bear market?

Compared to Ether’s price peak ($4,326) on May 12, the price has plummeted over 50% amidst the 

, changes in government regulations, overall market sentiment, and worldwide crypto acceptance. While some investors choose to off-load their assets, some see the dip as a discount and a buying opportunity. 

While the solid foundation and the upcoming projects Ethereum plans to roll out may be perceived as a forthcoming breakout trend, it all boils down to the acceptance of crypto in general.

That said, based on past performance, Ether’s price is predicted to reverse its downward trajectory. The incipient upgrade involving burning ETH coins (“

“) after each transaction alongside the 

consensus could serve as a “triple Ethereum halving” that ultimately surpasses the issuance rate of a new coin. This would potentially boost the ETH price further according to supply and demand. The growing adoption of both the Ethereum blockchain and 

 should also contribute further to its demand. 

While investing in crypto during the bear market isn’t for everyone, here’s what you need to piece the 

 and Ethereum together before diving into investing.

 is an open-source digital asset run on a decentralized platform. Its founder, Vitalik Buterin, aims to revolutionize cryptocurrencies beyond just payment technology. Ethereum’s blockchain runs on its native self-enforcing programming language, Solidity, and allows developers to create smart contracts and build decentralized applications (DApps). Technology has been utilized which is contributing to the recent rise in non-fungible tokens (NFT).

ETH is Ethereum’s native token, dubbed “the king of altcoins,” with a market cap of over $286 billion. ETH is commonly used to pay for transaction fees and computational services. Developers can write smart contracts that receive, hold and send ETH, while users can send ETH to one another.

Ethereum is innovative in its fundamentals and structure, as it supports the deployment of code of any algorithmic complexity. This is perceived as a revolutionary step in the advancement of distributed ledger technology.

Cryptocurrencies are speculative and volatile, and market turbulence is not a surprise to many investors. ETH indeed took a hit from the bear market, but it’s not the worst it has seen. Back in 2018, Ethereum’s price had plummeted over 95% from around $1,200 to $380 in April of that year.

Altcoins, including Ether, usually follow the price trail of Bitcoin. That means when Bitcoin’s price crashes, everything else tends to follow. Still, cycles are a natural event in any market, which helps traders and investors to gauge trends. For example, Bitcoin’s price has fallen over 50% to a new low of $29,807 on July 21 from its all-time high of over $64,000. This drop from its all-time high could indicate that the markdown and accumulation stage is ending and entering a markup stage.

Since altcoins usually follow BTC’s trend and BTC is showing a mini mark-up trend, this suggests ETH could be in the same stage, confirming the previous accumulation phase indicating a bullish trend is coming. Still, the market cycle is subject to interpretation, and ETH’s value is usually determined by the inception of the blockchain, related projects, and the news. The uptrend could also be due to the anticipation for the upcoming London Hard Fork. 

Retrospective: ETH Growth and Projections

Ethereum was created to be far more versatile than Bitcoin. The powerful tokenization, complex decentralized applications and decentralized fundraising campaigns are among Ethereum’s greatest strengths.

 (ICOs) realized Ether’s potential. Many users and developers used it as the primary funding mechanism for crowdfunding projects. As more projects turned to the Ethereum

 for their tokens and Ether gained popularity, speculation on the adoption of tokens grew — and so did Ether’s price. 

 of $1,412 on January 10. However, it wasn’t until 2021 that ETH went bull again, reaching 

 on May 7. When looking at growth charts, ETH generally traded at a consolidation price of $300 across 2020, until the recent bull runs in early 2021. Over 40 of these projects made it to the top 100 cryptocurrencies by 

During the Bitcoin breakdown in 2019, the ETH price took a significant hit, bringing the price for each coin down to $132. This marked a 30% drop in value for the cryptocurrency as the coin’s market cap value stood at the $13.98 billion level at that time. However, despite the sudden price drop, ETH managed to find some form of support. In fact, it shows bullish prospects after the collapse and could soar again when Ethereum 2.0 is fully rolled out.

The year 2019 was indeed pivotal for Ethereum in terms of development, achievements and the growing popularity of its market-reigning decentralized applications, or DApps.

Although there were no significant changes in ETH price, it showed signs of recovery from the deep and repeated sell-offs throughout 2018.

Fast-forward to 2020. Ethereum reclaimed its status as the world’s best-positioned smart contract platform to date. A slew of contributing factors included the global COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic recession. While DeFi was giving rise to decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), ETH rose to a new high. For all of these reasons, ETH possesses plenty of upsides, potentially in the near, mid, and long term.

 was scheduled for the end of 2021, the development has been delayed and is supposed to roll out sometime in 2022. The first phase of the planned upgrade will enact Ethereum’s shift to 

 (PoS) consensus, which will allow Ether holders to stake ETH. By securing ETH in the blockchain in exchange for block reward payments, ETH stakers can benefit from the annual yield. In the end, this will also improve ETH’s economic bandwidth.

Despite the delays, the development team is working on the official launch of Ethereum 2.0 step-by-step, which involves:

Ethereum started 2020 at $130 per coin, but continued to surge as the general cryptocurrency market gained uptrend momentum. On Jan 5, 2021, ETH’s price spiked, surpassing $1,000 after Vitalik Buterin provided reassurance to the cryptocurrency community via the scheduled launch of Phase 0 of Ethereum 2.0. Alongside the crypto bull run in the first half of 2021, ETH continued its uptrend. In April 2021, ETH finally broke the $2,000 barrier and soared to its all-time high of $4,362 on May 12, following the growing interest in DeFi and NFTs.

DeFi has grown by almost 400% in less than two years in terms of dollars locked up as crypto collateral. Ethereum, the backbone of this new financial ecosystem, currently has

While the world experienced considerable economic turmoil in 2020–2021 due to the global coronavirus pandemic, decentralized finance markets largely weathered the economic storm. This could indicate a more significant impact on Ethereum than the ICO in 2017.

As DeFi reached a few critical milestones between 2020 and the present, the number of new DeFi assets topped 1,000. The upshot? Its user base hit an

 in the first month. DeFi has now taken the shape of a complete financial ecosystem, and its economic bandwidth is scaling with over $7 billion in stablecoins. Half of that value is locked away in ERC-20 tokens built on Ethereum.

As ETH 2.0’s launch draws closer, the correlation between DeFi and Ethereum remains high. It is expected that locking in DeFi may give a much-needed boost to the cryptocurrency. In addition, the upcoming hard fork will further confirm the rollout of Ethereum 2.0.

Ethereum’s Future on Scalability and Profitability

Another crucial factor that drives Ethereum’s adoption and popularity is its unifying standards, which simplify integration into the Ethereum network. The Ethereum network has been plagued with bottleneck scalability issues for a long time, due to increased usage on the network. This has resulted in severe congestion, with transaction fees growing significantly. The upcoming ETH 2.0 update is expected to resolve current issues with scalability.

, “The network is looking forward to the future of Ethereum scaling,” which includes sharding that will be introduced with the forthcoming ETH 2.0. This new function will accelerate Layer 2 techniques 100x. This, combined with Ethereum’s relation to DeFi, is potentially a significant value driver for ETH — provided that the DeFi space doesn’t surpass Ethereum’s capacity and moves away onto a different blockchain.

In the meantime, the upcoming Ethereum halving (London Hard Fork) on August 4 only means that its value will grow, promising that demand will surpass supply. Yet only the future can tell how high Ethereum will go.

Forecasts of Ethereum’s future price movement have to consider both external and internal factors.

For the moment, the most critical aspects remain Ethereum’s long-awaited transition from Bitcoin’s proof-of-work concept to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus and the phenomenal upcoming DApps, DAOs, and

 on the decentralized network. Considering these fundamental factors, Ethereum price prediction looks positive for 2023 and even to 2025.

There is a consensus among experts that the ETH price outlook will remain bullish in the next few years. According to insights from leading crypto sources like Cointelegraph, Ethereum should experience a breakthrough in 2021. However, bumps are inevitable, due to the nature of crypto volatility.

According to the Finder app’s technical analysis,

 by the end of 2021. Token Metrics’ Senior Cryptocurrency Technical Analyst,

 Ethereum will be worth $8,000 by the end of 2021. But some technical analysts predict ETH may only reach another new all-time-high (ATH) in the following years. Generally, the future of Ethereum is looking good in terms of its value and prospects.

The fate of Ethereum’s ATH path is tied to its association with the billion-dollar DeFi space. The upcoming London Hard Fork upgrade is another significant factor that will play a central role in the rise of Ether’s value. All in all, predictions for Ethereum’s growth are bullish, with its value climbing and the price potentially receiving a heavy boost. We will expect a strong capitalization and consequently a substantial value-per-coin increase following the EIP upgrades.

Hence, the bullish trend is likely to continue, perhaps until 2023. That expectation is based mainly on the increasing interest of institutional and retail investors and the weakening of the global economy.

While 2025 is another peg on the board in expected milestones for the second-most popular cryptocurrency, the forecast for ETH indicates positive long-term growth, based on market data, historical charts, and current developments. If Ethereum retains its growth patterns, there’s room for its value to reach $9,000 by 2021, based on 

, CEO & Managing Partner at Blocktown Capital. This price projection is calculated and analyzed with 

 and considers historical ETH price movements.

With the recent bear market, ETH’s price dip below $1,700 could be seen as an opportunity to enter the crypto market at a time preceding historical changes which hold massive potential. As both scarcity and demand continue, investing in and trading ETH will become more lucrative.

There is speculation that the current growth rate within the Ethereum ecosystem is calling for “flippening” — whereby

 when the PoS algorithm is fully rolled out. But it all boils down to how successful Ethereum 2.0 upgrades are, as well as the overall adoption by the public.

As the cryptocurrency market continues to mature and merge with the traditional finance sector, it will give way to the new phenomenon of DeFi. Naturally, Ethereum will garner more and more interest from institutional investors in the future, which makes Ethereum a good investment.

Though cryptocurrencies remain volatile, ETH is becoming a staple in the portfolio of retail and institutional investors and traders alike. As the crypto community waits for the necessary changes to the Ethereum blockchain, the increasing use of DeFi projects is already fueling ETH’s value. The future of Ethereum is certainly looking positive.

The Future of Ethereum: Will ETH's Price Rise or Fall?

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