Bitwise CIO, Matt Hougan, believes that despite the price slump in 2024, Ethereum still holds promise.
For most cryptocurrencies, especially market leaders like Bitcoin and Solana, 2024 was a very positive year, leading to rebounds and new highs. However, investors were disappointed with Ethereum as it failed to trigger a rebound to new highs, achieving only a 46% increase.
Nevertheless, Ethereum still appears to have potential and may offer some benefits to investors, at least according to Bitwise CIO, Matt Hougan.
The “reverse” game in 2025
Matt Hougan, the CIO of Bitwise, suggests that Ethereum could offer a good “reverse investment” in 2025. This was shared by market analyst Altcoin Daily on Wednesday, January 8 in a video clip, primarily sourced from an interview on the platform in October 2024.
Hougan explains that there is always a temptation to write off Ethereum because it is not the OG blockchain like Bitcoin and is not as new and shiny as some of the so-called “killers” like Solana, Aptos, and SUI. However, he points out that this may be rash.
Hougan emphasizes that despite the challenges in Ethereum’s price, it still holds promise as it continues to dominate every blockchain use case from DeFi to stablecoins and tokenization.
He also notes that Ethereum has strong appeal in traditional financial institutions.
Despite Hougan’s viewpoint, Ethereum, like most other cryptocurrencies, did not have a good start to the year.
Macro-economic headwinds;
After an initial rebound in the first week of January 2025, Ethereum experienced losses once again, trading at $3319.65, slightly lower than its 2025 opening price of $3330.52. The subdued price action came amid macro-economic headwinds, specifically better-than-expected US economic data dampening hopes for interest rate cuts.
Despite these initial struggles, most researchers expect the asset’s price to at least double by 2025. For example, it has been predicted that Ethereum’s trading price this year will be $7000.
