Is Ethereum (ETH) a Worthy Investment?

Ethereum (ETH) is a well-known project in the crypto industry. It is the second largest coin by market cap, and likely the second most important cryptocurrency that was ever developed. In both cases, it was bettered only by Bitcoin itself, which places it quite high on the importance scale.

However, while nobody can deny the project’s importance for the crypto industry — as it is responsible for shifting the attention from cryptos to blockchain — many are starting to wonder if it is still a good investment. There was a time, not too long ago, when Ethereum was a go-to project for those who wanted to create a new cryptocurrency, smart contract, or a dApp.

The project was faster than Bitcoin (albeit not that much), and it was the record holder for the number of transactions per day, week, or month. However, its own scalability issues, plus the fact that its fees were relatively large, as well as the necessity to learn its own programming language to use it, inspired developers to create multiple alternatives. Today, Ethereum is far from being the only development platform in the industry. It is also quite far from being the best for dApp and token development.

It has several competitors these days, including TRON — a project that started on Ethereum — as well as EOS, both of which continue to grow and attract not only dApp users but even dApp developers. But, what does that mean for Ethereum? Is it still a good investment today? Will it be worth it in the future?

Is investing in ETH worth it?

Investing in Ethereum — or any other cryptocurrency, for that matter — was a difficult thing to do in 2018. With the prices constantly on the decline, there were some investors who took the chance to invest while the coins were cheap, but not a lot of them wanted to risk losing money. These days, things are starting to turn, and with the growing prices, ETH is seeing the return of investors, which is the trend throughout the crypto space.

The coin has seen several strong surges, and while it is still far away from its all-time high — its price is currently at $172, which is quite a bit higher than where it was at the beginning of the year. Even so, this still does not answer the question — is ETH a safe and worthy investment?

A lot of people tend to point out that the volume of Ethereum’s ecosystem has gone down significantly from its glory days. However, this is not an indication that there is something wrong with the project, or even that there is a lack of interest. The ‘glory days’ were the days of ICOs — the days when pretty much anyone could come up with their own new coin and launch it.

Coincidentally, the easiest way to do it was on Ethereum’s blockchains. However, while these projects saw a lot of trading in 2017, thus contributing to the ecosystem’s volume, the situation turned in 2018 when the crypto winter struck.

Some of the projects were weak, and they died out when things got tough. Others were scams that disappeared in time. And then, there are tokens that left the ecosystem in order to create their own, such as TRON itself. The loss of volume combined with the price decline did not help Ethereum’s reputation. Then, there are competitors, like TRON and EOS, which have improved their projects and started attracting dApp users and developers.

This is only natural, as they can handle greater numbers of transactions almost instantly, and they do not charge fees for every single microtransaction that occurs while using dApps. However, it is also worth noting that most of their dApps are gambling-related, and gambling is a touchy subject around the world. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s dApps remain much more diverse.

What do the experts think?

Ethereum predictions given by the experts seem to be quite bullish, too, which is another indicator that the project does have value. The founder of Joe Technologist.com, Joseph Raczynski, believes that ETH will surge to $1,200 by the end of the year. Ian McLeod of Thomas Crown Art is also bullish on ETH, although less than Raczynski. He predicts that ETH will reach around $500 by the end of 2019. Then, there is Nigel Green of the deVere Group, who believes that ETH might surge to $2.500 by the year’s end.

Clearly, ETH is seen as a worthy investment by all of these experts, and its importance for the crypto space cannot be denied. Further, Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin does not seem to be concerned regarding the migration of dApp users and developers. According to him, Ethereum’s main purpose was always to provide smart contracts, which is the area where it is still the best. As such, ETH does remain a safe investment and is more than worthy of considering, even in 2019.

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Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice. Global Coin Report and/or its affiliates, employees, writers, and subcontractors are cryptocurrency investors and from time to time may or may not have holdings in some of the coins or tokens they cover. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency and read our full disclaimer.

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