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The amount of ethereum (eth) owned by long-term holders has reached a new milestone, reaching 70% as of December 1.
According to blockchain analytics firm IntoTheBlock, this is noteworthy as it puts ethereum ahead of bitcoin (btc) by the same metric, which was just around 70%.
The increase in the proportion of eth held by these holders is seen by some market observers as showing a conviction in the cryptocurrency's long-term potential.
The record comes amid predictions that the time when ethereum will eclipse bitcoin is rapidly approaching. On December 23, well-known crypto analyst Raoul Pal reiterated a previous prediction suggesting that in 2024 eth and btc could repeat their 2021 cycle.
In that year, eth outperformed btc, growing 254% versus bitcoin's 45% after initially falling behind.
Pal's outlook was reflected in cautious optimism. bitcoin–ethereum–crypto-token-19b3ea30″ data-type=”link” data-id=”https://www.barrons.com/articles/bitcoin–ethereum–crypto-token-19b3ea30″ target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>forecast from JPMorgan analysts, who, despite their overall conservative attitude towards the cryptocurrency market, predicted that eth will surpass btc and other digital assets in market price performance by 2024.
This optimistic outlook on eth, conveyed by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou and his team, is tied to the important EIP-4844 update, known as ethereum-on-steroids/what-is-proto-danksharding-and-what-does-it-mean-for-ethereum-7bcbf0bb62ca” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>protodankharding. This update, which will be released in the first half of 2024, is expected to significantly improve the performance of the ethereum network by implementing a more efficient sharding method.
Even though the current price action is still lagging behind bitcoin's level, more analysts also feel that the impressive recent performance of altcoins and L2 projects hints at an imminent eth rally, with the cryptocurrency currently priced at $2,300 , an increase of 4.3% in the last seven days and an increase of 88.6% in 12 months.
However, ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently raised eyebrows by transferring 500 eth, valued at more than $1 million, to Coinbase, according to on-chain analysts.
This follows a series of major transfers made by Buterin in September and his eth/0xb8ccf84d” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>statement in October that he has not “sold Ether for personal benefit since 2018.”
Recent activity on Buterin's ethereum wallet, including a transfer of $3.79 million in eth over ten days in September, led to speculation about the sale of his cryptocurrency, which he later clarified was for philanthropy and not personal gain.
