A panel of 33 fintech, cryptocurrency and non-fungible token (NFT) specialists predict cryptocurrency ethereum’s price will peak at US$7,609 in 2022 – roughly 102% higher than its price at the beginning of the year, accord to Finder.com’s latest Ethereum Price Predictions Report. However, the currency, according to the panel average, will to end the year at US$6,500.

Finder.com founder Fred Schebesta predicts the cryptocurrency will peak at US$7,000 before dropping to US$6,000 by the end of 2022 due to heavy competition. “While the network certainly has advantages in global market awareness and developer base, it is also against increasingly strong competition that bitcoin does not face by contrast.”

University of Brighton senior lecturer Paul Levy thinks the currency will go as high as US$9,000 and end the year at around US$8,000. “Ethereum, if it stays on top of technical and innovation challenges, will continue potentially erratic growth with the potential to thrive in the medium to longer term,” he says. “It is an early innovation success story and that innovation potential needs to be matched by further innovation capability.”

Longer term, the panel predicts ethereum will be worth US$10,810 by the end of 2025, and US$26,338 by the end of 2030. Though significant increases from its current price, these are 30% and 48% lower respectively than the panel’s predictions in October 2021.

Ethereum’s anticipated move to a proof-of-stake (PoS) model will likely lead to a price drop, according to one in ten panellists (11%), while 79% say the move will increase its price and the remaining 11% say there’ll be no impact or they’re unsure.

Permission chief product officer Vanessa Harris thinks the move to a PoS model will lead to a significant decrease in the currency’s price and predicts it will be worth just US$100 by 2030.

“Ethereum has the strongest ecosystem of any smart contract platform, but is plagued by high gas fees and low scalability,” she points out. “The move to proof of stake is unlikely to solve Ethereum's scalability challenges though, and we should look to L2s [layer-two solutions] and side chains to support its scalability.”

Overall, 19% of the panel say it’s time to sell the currency, compared with just 10% who say it’s time to sell bitcoin. Meanwhile 52% say it's time to buy ethereum, and 30% hold.

Panxora Group CEO Gavin Smith expects a price drop following the move to the PoS model and thinks it’s time to sell. “The improvements provided by proof of stake will not outweigh the negative impact of excessive gas prices,” he shares. “The change made recently to gas calculations will cancel out any reduction in gas prices that proof of stake would have provided. [Its] likely to be surpassed by a number of other smart contract blockchain protocols over the next five years.”

Meanwhile, Thomson Reuters technologist and futurist Joseph Raczynski is part of the majority who says PoS will lead to an increase in price and says the currency will cost US$8,000 by the end of 2022, before reaching US$15,000 by the end of 2025. Scalability and throughput are king, but doing this in a decentralised manner with security is critical - PoS on ethereum in 2022 should get them there.”

CoinSmart CEO and co-founder Justin Hartzman agrees with Raczynski, but gave a slightly lower prediction of US$7,500 for the end of 2022. He adds that the only real concern he has regarding PoS is the speed of its rollout. “If the ethereum 2.0 model is successful and PoS is properly implemented, we can expect ethereum to moon real hard. My only concern is the speed of the rollout. Ethereum tends to be a bit slow with its updates. However, the community mostly supports any and all of their initiatives.”