JPMorgan Chase analysts are making a prediction about Ethereum (ETH) outperforming Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in 2024, despite the bank’s overall cautious stance on the crypto market in the upcoming year.
Analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou stated: “We believe Ethereum will solidify its position and regain market share within the crypto industry. The key driver for this will be the upgrade EIP-4844, expected to roll out in the first half of 2024. We see this as a significant enhancement for the Ethereum network, which will contribute to the growth of ETH.”
EIP-4844 (or Proto-danksharding) is an upgrade designed to scale the Ethereum network by dividing blockchain data into smaller “blobs,” which helps reduce gas fees, especially with layer-2 solutions like Arbitrum and Optimism.
However, the implementation of EIP-4844 through a hard fork, known as Dencun, has faced continuous delays by Ethereum developers, with a new estimated timeline of around March or April 2024.
JPMorgan suggests that positive events expected by the crypto investment community for Bitcoin in 2024, such as the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs and the fourth halving event in its history, have already been factored into price charts in recent months, potentially limiting positive impacts.
Furthermore, analysts note that after the 2020 halving event, the Bitcoin price-to-production cost ratio decreased, and a similar trend may repeat itself now, given that the current ratio is at x2.0.