Ethereum (ETH) Live Price and Analysis

ETH price history: Coinbase

In the crypto industry, Bitcoin is considered the first, largest, and most important digital asset ever created. But if Bitcoin is first, then Ethereum definitely deserves nothing short of second place.

It was created in 2015, and it revolutionized the crypto industry by showing the world that blockchain can be used for development and not just for storing transaction details.

By having the ability to record and execute code, Ethereum turned blockchain into a development platform, and all the trends and products that run on blockchain today — smart contracts, dApps, DeFi, metaverse, NFTs, and more — only exist because of this one project.

That said, it is unsurprising that ETH is the second-largest cryptocurrency or that other crypto users commonly discuss its price.

Its coins are also highly useful within its ecosystem, where they have numerous use cases, so the project’s daily volume tends to be in the billions.

Ethereum’s current price action indicates that the bulls are attempting to push it toward reclaiming its all-time high and even surpassing it. However, the market conditions remain volatile, making it necessary for investors to view this token with greater scrutiny.

Ethereum Price Now – Live Price Chart

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Where can I buy Ethereum in December 2024

Ethereum is one of the biggest and most used coins in the entire crypto industry. As such, it can be found on pretty much all CEXes, and every DEX within its own ecosystem.

However, if you wish to buy it in a more familiar and traditional environment, your best option is eToro — a popular trading platform that features crypto and traditional assets alike.

Since it has traditional assets like stocks and commodities, as well as multiple major cryptos, eToro is a great option for those who wish to diversify their portfolios.

If your portfolio consists primarily of traditional assets, you could use eToro to add crypto, and vice versa.

eToro also has a number of other benefits that make it great, such as excellent design which makes it very easy to use, even for new users, and the fact that you pay no fees for buying and selling cryptocurrencies.

In addition, it offers social and copy trading, so even if you don’t know what you are doing, you can copy one of the platform’s experts and achieve similar results as them while trading crypto and other assets.

Update 2024 – Going forward, the only cryptocurrencies eToro customers in the United States will be able to trade on the platform will be Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum.

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The history of Ethereum’s price

Ethereum went live back in 2015, which means that there are now nearly 8 full years of price history to examine and draw conclusions from. When it first went live, the coin had a price of $2.8, and during the 2021 bull run, it reached an all-time high of $4,733.

Following its launch, Ethereum’s price has been growing gradually, starting in early 2016. It reached the price of $20 in mid-June of that year, followed by a correction to $9. This was around the time when DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) initially emerged within the Ethereum network.

This was a smart contract system that managed to raise $150 million through a crowd sale, with some assistance from the asset’s prominent members.

Unfortunately, while the DAO saw an excellent start, it was soon hacked by an unknown individual who stole $50 million, which triggered a massive debate on how to deal with the issue within Ethereum’s community. Eventually, the decision was made to perform a hard fork and reverse the transaction.

However, since the decision lacked a total consensus, some started questioning the asset’s immutability, and when the form was performed, some decided to use it to launch Ethereum Classic and stick with the “original” Ethereum. Of course, the price crash that took place in 2016 was mostly the result of the hack.

Then came 2017, and with it, the first big crypto bull run, led by Bitcoin. Ethereum has been surging throughout the year in recovery from the hack, and it eventually got sucked into the rally as the year approached the end.

It actually peaked in 2018, hitting its new all-time high (ATH) on January 16th, with the price of $1,292.

When the crypto prices started crashing during the crypto winter of 2018, Ethereum was brought down to $370 during the initial crash and then to $89.61 on December 16th, 2018, which was the lowest it had been since early 2017.

Fortunately, the coin has never seen such low levels again. While 2019 has been relatively stable compared to the years before and after, it saw ETH surge to $336 in late June, only to drop again in the second half of the year.

In 2020, there were a few small surges, but nothing special compared to the asset’s performance in 2021.

However, 2020 is still noteworthy, as this was when the project launched its Beacon chain that was later used to build and organize Ethereum 2.0’s network of stakers and shards.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin was starting a new bull run at the same time, which Ethereum finally joined in late 2020 and throughout 2021.

2021 has been a very volatile year, which first led ETH from the price of $800 in early January to nearly $4,000 on March 9th, After that, Elon Musk announced that Tesla would stop accepting Bitcoin payments, which caused BTC, as well as the rest of the crypto industry, to crash.

Ethereum itself dropped to $1,831, but since this was still a very bullish period, crypto prices quickly started to recover. This allowed it to continue its surge in late July, and continue skyrocketing until November 10th, 2021.

This was when ETH reached its new and current ATH of $4,733. After that, however, the bull run simply ended.

Cryptocurrencies started losing their value, and for the next year, the prices were dropping almost constantly, with only brief periods of short-term recovery before the crash would continue. Ethereum reached its lowest point in mid-June 2022 when it dropped to $993. After that, it recovered to $2,000, only to drop to $1,200 as the year came to a close.

In 2021 and 2022, Ethereum also saw a massive explosion of NFTs, which conquered the industry even during the bear market.

NFTs likely affected Ethereum’s price in some way, and without them, perhaps it would have dropped even deeper. Another thing worth mentioning is that the project finally upgraded to Ethereum 2.0 in late 2022, in the event known as the Merge.

The arrival of the Merge did set Ethereum up for a sharp recovery. However, its growth was subtle, as volatile market conditions due to wars and tense geopolitical situations prevented the crypto market from reaching its highs early on.

It took Bitcoin reaching its all-time high in the first quarter of 2024 for Ethereum to surge. It surpassed its $3.7k resistance before correcting and bouncing back to the same level again. However, the geopolitical landscape and the inherent volatility of the crypto space continue to affect ETH, leading its value to retrace and find support just above the $2.2k mark.

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How is the price of Ethereum determined?

The price of Ethereum is determined by a number of different factors, each of which can also be used to analyze its current price and make predictions for its price moving forward.

Supply and demand

Supply and demand are the basic elements of determining the price of any asset, especially of cryptocurrencies. If an asset has some value, and some people wish to own it, then that is all that is needed for supply and demand to work.

Supply shows how much of the asset is available on the open market, while demand shows how sought-after the asset is.

When the demand grows, so does the asset’s value, as any purchase means more of it is left for others to buy. Meanwhile, if people start selling the asset, then its availability on the market increases, which automatically leads to price reductions.

Media coverage

Ethereum is a massive and influential asset, so any media coverage is bound to reach a lot of people and cause them to make moves that will affect its price.

For example, the asset saw a meteoric rise in value in 2021, leading to a 400% surge in gains after the demand for NFTs blew up, eventually leading it to the previously mentioned all-time high.

Generally, any positive news involving its development establishes greater optimism among traders and investors, which start buying in expectation of price growth. In doing so, they create demand that ensures that price growth actually happens.

Volume

The volume also plays a big role, as an increase in volume signifies that the coin is being used and that it is exchanging hands.

With that being the case, many of those who are waiting for signs of such activity jump on the opportunity to participate themselves. An increase in volume also signifies greater liquidity, and it contributes to the cryptocurrency value becoming more stable.

Social media

While social media can be used to influence price growth in certain cryptocurrencies, it has never been too big of a factor for Ethereum itself.

Ethereum has reacted to market FUDs and similar events, but it has never spiked in any noticeable way due to pumps on Twitter and Reddit. This resistance to social media pumps actually makes it more reliable and trustworthy.

How often does the price of ETH change?

Since Ethereum is not a cryptocurrency backed by any real-world asset, its price can be quite volatile, and it moves up and down constantly.

With that said, the coin is not nearly as volatile as Bitcoin, and while it can go up or down by hundreds of dollars in a matter of days, Bitcoin moves by a similar amount within hours.

Ethereum tends to move significantly slower, and it requires strong events to make it jump too strongly in any direction.

However, the coin does see a lot of use, as its network is the busiest one in the crypto industry.

With thousands of cryptocurrencies and dApps operating within its ecosystem, Ethereum is used for paying fees, investing, trading, powering dApps, and more, all of which can have a slight impact on its price performance.

When it all comes together, it is not surprising that its price moves up and down all the time.

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Investing in Ethereum

While Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of volume, it is an asset that powers a massive ecosystem — the largest one in the entire crypto industry.

Because of that, it is more difficult for crypto novices to learn all the way how to use it. It certainly has a steeper learning curve than Bitcoin in that regard.

It is used in dApps, DeFi, powering other coins, buying new coins during token sales, it is used in centralized and decentralized exchanges, and more.

In the end, Ethereum was never meant to become an asset for investments; rather, it was to serve as fuel for its powerful ecosystem.

This is why you need it if you wish to interact with this ecosystem and use it to its full extent. However, if you simply wish to trade ETH or invest in it, this is also quite possible and more than easy to do. The bigger question is — is now the right time to do it?

Is It Worth Buying Ethereum in December 2024?

As of October 2023, Ethereum price has seen a serious recovery from last year’s levels. Looking at things from a historical perspective, The bull run of 2021 can be compared to the one seen in 2017.

The crypto winter of 2022 corresponds to the crypto winter of 2018. Following this pattern, we can conclude that the crypto price behavior in 2023 should mirror that in 2019.

If that is the case, the prices will grow for the first half of this year, albeit moderately, only to then correct in the second half of the year, while the true growth should come in late 2024, or maybe even 2025.

Of course, one problem with that is that the crypto industry continues to mature, grow, and change all the time. The crypto industry of 2023 is very different from the one in 2019. In 2023, institutional investors are a massive part of the crypto sector, while in 2019, they were only beginning to explore it.

Many places now around the world offer at least some regulations for the crypto industry, and the adoption has reached much larger proportions.

With all that being the case, things could play out very differently this time around, and the fact is that no one can predict with accuracy what will happen.

Even the most accurate predictions can become completely wrong if some major event takes place to affect the market. A bull run could come sooner, or the crypto winter might return. In other words, anything is possible.

But, for careful investors, this seems like the right time to invest in Ethereum, given that the asset has evolved recently to Ethereum 2.0, that the market is recovering, and that, historically, massive price drops should be a thing of the past.

In the end, the best thing to do is to perform your own research and try to come up with your own conclusions.

Who should invest in Ethereum ?

Ethereum is an asset useful to a lot of different people. Thanks to its numerous use cases, it is sought after by people who wish to interact with its decentralized exchanges, dApps, DeFi protocols, or even those who wish to buy new cryptos during token sales.

It is definitely sought after by ETH believers who expect its price to go up and by traders who seek to make a profit from short-term price changes.

It is popular among stakers, now that it switched to the PoS mechanism, and among those who wish to contribute to securing its network or participating in its governance.

Ethereum is also a good asset to diversify your investment portfolio, as it has great potential to surge and make the portfolio stronger.

In fact, it is safe to say that it is only a matter of time before its price goes back up to the $4k region. The only question is how long it is going to take — a few months or several years.

Read our guide to discover 8 reasons for you to invest Ethereum.

How to Get Started investing in Ethereum?

As mentioned earlier, investing in Ethereum is quite simple. You can do it on any centralized exchange, any Ethereum-based DEX — provided that you have one of the Ethereum-based tokens — or even on some traditional trading platforms, such as eToro.

eToro is potentially the best choice for novice investors and traders for several reasons, such as copy-trading, 0% fees on trades, social trading, and one aspect that the crypto industry has yet to master — a very simple user interface. So, if you choose to go with this recommendation and buy Ethereum on eToro, here is what you need to do:

Go to eToro’s platform, and open an account
Verify your identity by uploading the required documentation
Deposit some money to the platform using one of the offered deposit methods
Search for Ethereum via the search box, and once you find it, click the Trade button, and enter the amount that you wish to purchase.
Once you have bought some ETH, make sure to withdraw it to a private wallet (preferably a hardware wallet) in order to keep it safe and to make sure that you are the only one with access to it or any control over it.

Investing in Ethereum responsibly

When it comes to investing in cryptocurrencies, buying them is the easy part. Buying and managing them responsibly is the tricky portion of the process.

Investing in cryptocurrencies comes with its risks, where the stability of the coin or token is only one of the things that you need to keep in mind.

With that said, here are a few tips that should help you invest in Ethereum responsibly:

Only keep a small amount of your total ETH holdings on crypto exchanges and trading platforms;
Do your research as thoroughly as possible before making any crypto investments;
Research available platforms, and make sure to identify which one offers the best terms;
Store your cryptocurrency in a hardware wallet, especially if you do not plan to use it in the near future, to ensure its safety;
Use a VPN to mask your IP address and encrypt your online traffic for greater security.

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Ethereum Taxation

For several years now, ever since the cryptocurrency industry started going big, governments around the world have started introducing taxes on profits from digital assets.

This started very quickly after crypto prices soared and governments around the world realized that people are earning serious money from the crypto industry.

Today, almost all countries have taxes on earnings from cryptocurrencies, meaning that any earnings that you might make from trading or investing in ETH will also be subject to taxation.

With that said, each country has taxed cryptocurrencies individually, so the percentage of your profits that you have to pay to the government differs from one nation to another.

In other words, if you wish to profit from ETH, you should check your own country’s laws to see how much you will owe.

Ethereum vs. other cryptos

Ethereum is one of the best blockchain networks that has ever existed. It is home to one of the best projects in the cryptoverse. Ethereum was founded in 2013 by Vitalik Buterin. The platform dominates the crypto market as the best blockchain network ever created. However, one disadvantage of Ethereum is that it still uses the PoW mechanism.

This consensus mechanism has led to an increase in gas fees within the ecosystem. Any transaction within the ecosystem costs huge for users. Hence, investors are now diversifying to other blockchain networks due to its pitfalls.

However, it still maintains its market dominance and has raised standards for other cryptocurrencies as well. Let’s look at other cryptos and how they are different from Ethereum:

Ethereum vs. Shiba Inu

Like Dogecoin, Shiba Inu is an open-source, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency based on the Ethereum network, also regarded as a meme token. It was launched in August 2020 and is based on the Japanese dog breed Shiba Inu. Founded by an anonymous person called Ryoshi, the token is a ditto copy of Dogecoin. Moreover, it is regarded as a ‘Dogecoin Killer,’ and the coin has generated 1000000% gains alone in 2021.

Ethereum vs. Bitcoin

Bitcoin is decentralized digital money that was first introduced in January 2009. It is based on the principles presented in a white paper by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. It promises reduced transaction costs than standard online payment channels and, unlike government-issued currencies, is run by a decentralized authority. It is still the gold standard for digital assets such as Dogecoin.

Day-Trading Ethereum vs. Long-Term Ethereum Investments

If you seek to profit from Ethereum’s price movement, there are two ways to do that. One is to invest in ETH, while the other is to trade it.

The difference between the two is how long you will keep the purchased coins. Trading, for example, requires quite a bit of work since everything is happening in a relatively short amount of time. Due to the extreme volatility of cryptocurrencies, prices go up and down all the time, and traders need to be able to make use of such changes.

Their goal is to buy when the price is low and sell when it climbs higher. The higher it goes, the better. However, the trader needs to be able to recognize when the price reaches its peak before it starts going down again so that they wouldn’t miss the opportunity to sell and make the most of it.

In order to do that, they need a cool head and strong nerves so that they wouldn’t wait for too long out of greed or sell too quickly out of fear of missing out (FOMO). They also have to know how to read charts and analyze technical indicators, which can suggest the price’s movement.

If they trade during a slightly longer period of several days or even a few weeks, a fundamental analysis is also necessary. This basically means that they must keep track of the news, trends, and other similar aspects that may influence the market sentiment — the way other traders and investors feel about the coin or token in question.

To top it all off, all of this needs to be done relatively quickly, as the price continues to move at all times. This is why traders have to be able to keep a constant eye on the market, watch out for new data and developments, and include them in their analysis and calculations.

They also need to be precise with their assessment, or else they might make a wrong move. And, of course, it is important to note that such quick trades tend to bring only small amounts of profit. However, if a trader is successful, these small amounts can make quite sizable profits over time.

It is also important for the trader to keep in mind that they are bound to experience losses during their trading and that daily or even weekly performance is not good enough to measure their success. Instead, they should test their trading strategies on a monthly basis, at least.

On the other hand, investing is a long-term way of profiting from price changes, often involving months, at minimum, and entire years, on average. Some extreme long-term investors do not intend to use the assets they have invested in for entire decades.

The idea behind investing is that crypto prices are bound to grow in time, and the more time passes, the better for the price of their chosen asset.

With that being the case, all they really need to do is research the cryptocurrency, make sure that it has good enough use cases and technology, and that there is a high likelihood that their crypto of choice has a future.

Once they make sure of that, all that remains is to buy it, preferably at a low point in its price movement, but for many, even that is not a necessity.

Once they purchase the coins, they must secure them by withdrawing them from the exchange to a secure wallet, where they would safely await a day in the future when the trader would sell them.

Since this could be years from the moment of purchase, the investor may very well forget about the coins until the time is right. Investment strategies tend to be much simpler, there is less research required, and the investors do not have to stress about every price drop or small surge, as traders do.

All they need to do is patiently wait for payday, which will then reward them with significant profits.

It is important to note that both of these approaches are perfectly legitimate, and neither is better or worse than the other. However, each comes with its own requirements, and those requirements might not fit different people equally.

Some people handle stress better, so trading might not be a problem for them, while others might prefer to only check the prices from time to time and not have to worry about the price movement constantly.

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Future Predictions for Ethereum Price

It is not entirely possible to predict Ethereum’s price action with 100% accuracy, given the market’s extreme volatility. That said, there have been notable technological developments within Ethereum’s ecosystem.

Blockchain News reported on Ethereum developers’ consensus call number 143, where developers discussed updates regarding Pectra Devnets and PeerDAS. The discussions focused on the relaunch of these updates and bug fixes to support low-bandwidth validators. However, it may take time for these updates to have any significant impact on ETH’s price.

With that in mind, we can analyze the charts to forecast the price to some extent.

2024

Investors should expect Ethereum prices to fluctuate extensively during the fourth quarter of this year. While the micro-analysis of the price chart from September to October 2024 shows the emergence of an upward channel, the overall price remains volatile.

Even if Ethereum continues to follow the support trendline shown in the candlestick chart below, it is unlikely to reclaim the yearly high it achieved in 2024. Our conservative estimate is that ETH will try to find support at $2.7k by the end of this year.

Failure to stay above this trendline may drop ETH’s value further. Since Ethereum has experienced extended downturns in 2024, bearish market conditions could push its value down to the $2k level.

2025

In the long term, the Ethereum price could climb higher to reach its all-time high, as 2025 is just around the corner, and many are anticipating it to be a bullish year for Bitcoin.

While Ethereum couldn’t reach a new ATH in 2024, it may attempt to do so next year and could succeed. This optimism stems from historical charts, as a year after the previous halving, Ethereum reached its all-time high. The same could happen in 2025 as well.

However, that may require periods of a continuous string of green candles on the price charts if Ethereum were to follow the same trend it did in 2021.

2030 and Beyond

By 2030, it is believed that the market will be more regulated, and the price of most crypto assets will have stabilized. Ethereum, as the world’s second-biggest cryptocurrency, may become the largest regulated cryptocurrency on the market, potentially leading to its price being less volatile than it is now. Furthermore, more mainstream decentralized applications may develop by then, contributing to long-term growth for ETH. Based on these factors, it is possible that ETH could reach $5.5k to $6k by 2030.

Best Ethereum alternative in December 2024

The last thing that we wanted to talk about concerns Ethereum alternatives. While Ethereum is an old and established asset whose price reached thousands of dollars at several points in its history, many believe that true opportunities lie in new cryptocurrencies that are only coming out now.

One of the best examples of this is Pepe Unchained. Even though it is a meme coin, it has carved its own niche within the crypto space by establishing its own blockchain. Pepe Unchained has designed its layer 2 solution to tackle the shortcomings of Ethereum’s layer 1.

With its adoption of Ethereum’s layer 2 solution, Pepe Unchained offers a host of perks, including faster transaction speeds and lower transaction costs. Since it is developed on Ethereum, it also offers staking perks, but thanks to the layer 2 solution, these perks are doubled.

These attributes contribute to the value Pepe Unchained brings to the meme coin ecosystem. Its focus on developing a meme coin-specific blockchain is a major development, which could have long-term ramifications on the entire market. For instance, it could attract Pepe investors seeking a multi-chain advantage, or it could draw developers looking to leverage the new blockchain to devise new use cases.

These factors have enabled Pepe Unchained to raise more than $17 million to date and gain a following among crypto analysts. 99Bitcoins has discussed whether it could become the next 10x version of PEPE.

For more information, investors can visit the official website.

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Conclusion

Ethereum is one of the most important cryptocurrencies that were ever developed, and it is extremely influential and innovative.

Every great blockchain product we use today emerged from Ethereum and its technology, so it is safe to say that today’s crypto industry would look a lot different without this project.

No one knows how the project might contribute to the crypto industry moving forward, but it is safe to say that Ethereum will forever remain one of the biggest and most important cryptocurrencies out there, regardless of what happens with its price.

Key takeaways:

Investing or trading Ethereum or any crypto is very risky.
Ethereum now has 115.7 million coins in circulation.
Ethereum is popular as it provides best-in-class use cases to crypto projects.
Ethereum ranks 2nd under Bitcoin and has market domination.
Ethereum has great potential with its use cases rising.
Investors need to follow their due diligence before investing in ETH.

Is ETH coin a good investment?

While all cryptocurrencies are volatile, and therefore none can be described as “safe investment,” Ethereum is one of the projects which are more likely to survive in the long term. Apart from that, it has proven that it can be quite profitable if you buy at the right time. As such, it has potential for investing.

How much is the ETH coin?

At the time of writing, the price of Ethereum is around $2.4k.

How to buy an ETH coin?

The easiest way to buy Ethereum’s ETH coins is to open an account on any crypto exchange or eToro, verify your identity, fund your account, select ETH on the list of offered cryptocurrencies, and enter the amount that you wish to buy.

How to get a free ETH coin?

There are ways of getting Ethereum for free, but keep in mind that these would not be large amounts. You can get Ether by using websites that offer free crypto in exchange for completing surveys, watching films, fulfilling various offers and alike. You are likely to receive points for ETH or some other crypto of your choice if you take that route.