In its first five years of existence, Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) skyrocketed in value by more than 16,000% to hit an all-time high of $4,892 in November 2021. Today, it remains the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world, with a market cap of almost $200 billion.
In many ways, Ethereum is at a crossroads right now. For the year, it’s down more than 50% and has been a market underperformer for several years. With that in mind, here’s a closer look at where the cryptocurrency could be headed next.
The good news is that there’s a strategic roadmap for Ethereum. Every year, the Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin lays out the key priorities for the blockchain and provides an update on key technological initiatives from the crypto’s developers. Investors actually have a pretty good idea of what Ethereum is emphasizing, unlike other cryptocurrencies.
Based on Buterin’s October commentary, a key priority is to boost the scalability and throughput capacity of the Ethereum blockchain. The ultimate goal is to hit a processing speed of 100,000 transactions per second. That type of speed is breathtakingly fast and would silence the critics who say that blockchain competitors are passing Ethereum by in terms of speed and efficiency.
However, there’s a big debate happening right now within the Ethereum community about how to put all that speed, efficiency, and scalability to work.
On one hand, you have those who think that Ethereum should focus on projects that benefit humanity, such as new blockchain-based voting systems to guarantee election integrity. On the other hand, you have those who insist that Ethereum should stick to what it does best — decentralized finance (DeFi) — and focus on ways to help people make money with crypto.
Earlier this year, Buterin commented publicly, saying that he was growing increasingly discouraged about the way people are using Ethereum. He even likened Ethereum to a “degenerate casino,” in which people are essentially gambling on meme coins and speculating in digital assets like non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Instead of collaborating for the common good of humanity, these people are engaging in adversarial “player versus player” (PvP) behavior.
The wild-card factor in all this is the Trump White House. Members of the Trump family — including President Donald Trump himself — have publicly spoken in favor of Ethereum. And the Trump White House made the crypto a cornerstone of the new U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile, so there’s very strong support for Ethereum at the highest levels.
