Ethereum Price to Hit $22,000 by 2030, Predicts VanEck

Global asset manager VanEck predicted Wednesday that the price of Ethereum will reach $22,000 by the end of the decade, dubbing the cryptocurrency “digital oil” in a new report. That would represent a 468% increase from Ethereum’s current price.

While Ethereum has generated $3.4 billion in revenue over the past year, VanEck additionally sees that figure reaching $51 billion by 2030.

“We believe ETH is a revolutionary asset with few parallels in the non-crypto financial world,” the report asserted. “The Ethereum network is likely to continue its rapid market share growth from traditional financial market participants and, increasingly, Big Tech.”

VanEck characterized Ethereum as the centerpiece of its own financial system, as its network already secures over $90 billion in stablecoins, around $7 billion in tokenized assets, and $308 billion in digital assets.

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At the same time, VanEck sees Ethereum making inroads outside of crypto. Based on the size of business sectors that Ethereum-built applications could disrupt, VanEck estimated that the network's total addressable market stands at $15 trillion. Those opportunities lie largely in finance, banking, and payments, VanEck said.

Ethereum could also find roles in infrastructure and artificial intelligence, the firm added, as well as marketing, advertising, social, and gaming.

The report highlighted some of Ethereum’s distinct aspects as a network and an asset, from its nature as “programmable money” to a “yield bearing commodity.” Notably, VanEck’s report calls Ethereum an “internet reserve currency,” central to its massive ecosystem and layer-2 networks.

VanEck’s report comes not long after the Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of spot Ethereum ETFs. Allowing mainstream investors to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency in a traditional brokerage account, the move also had implications for Ethereum’s regulatory status.

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Ethereum spot ETFs will perform much like their Bitcoin-based predecessors, hauling $4 billion of inflows within five months after launch, according to K33 Research. “This estimate is based on the relative global ETH assets under management (AUM) market share compared to BTC of 28%,” wrote the crypto brokerage firm in a Tuesday report. Similarly, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)’s ETH open interest is currently 23% of Bitcoin, reflecting a similar market share in another institutionally foc...

For crypto natives, the concept may be basic, but its significance was underscored by VanEck: In order to send Ethereum or engage with smart contracts, a user needs to spend Ethereum on gas fees, which are then removed from circulation through burning. In essence, VanEck said that this dynamic benefits Ethereum holders two-fold: providing demand while reducing supply.

The asset manager expects Ethereum will also chip away at established tech giants like Google and Apple as a platform for developers to create consumer-facing applications. While the firms take around 30% of revenue from apps hosted in their respective digital stores, VanEck said Ethereum currently takes around 24% of reventhrough gas fees.

“Compared to data-centric social networking platforms like Facebook, we believe Ethereum may enable more capable and lucrative applications for entrepreneurs,” the report stated. “As more data is generated in public and more commerce is moved off expensive, closed financial rails, business moats will erode.”

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.