Ethereum News Update

Have we reached a bottom? That’s the question on most people’s minds today, as cryptocurrency markets flashed green for the second consecutive trading session.

Personally, I’m not convinced.

ETH prices face a long winding road to their pre-crisis levels, which means it won’t be a straight rocket ride back to $1,000. We need to see this recovery tested by bad news. If it shows resiliency, then it’s safe to say the market has inflected.




Until then, let’s take a look at two big pieces of Ethereum news.

Amber Baldet leaves JPMorgan. Baldet, who ran the company’s Quorum blockchain, is leaving to start her own cryptocurrency venture. No doubt she looked around at her peers in startups and was tempted by their financial success. However, the most interesting takeaway is that JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) lost a key architect of its blockchain development. Could a more Ethereum-friendly person replace Baldet? Who knows. But Quorum’s troubles are good for Ethereum regardless, if only because Quorum represents incumbency. (Source: “Blockchain executive Amber Baldet to leave JPMorgan,” Reuters, April 2, 2018.) The anti-money laundering push continues globally. As of today, Australia’s anti-money laundering (AML) laws will apply to cryptocurrency exchanges “down under.” This means that any transaction over AUD$10,000 passes under a microscope, not to mention that exchanges must keep records for seven years. Since the penalty for non-compliance is a criminal offense, you can bet that black market dollars will slink back into the shadows. (Source: “Digital currency exchange providers: register online with AUSTRAC,” Australian Government, April 3, 2018.)

Further north, Taiwan is looking to enact similar AML laws. Malaysia and Korea have already done so, which suggests to me that a regional consensus is emerging on how to regulate digital assets. (Source: “Taiwan Central Bank Proposes Money Laundering Rules for Bitcoin,” CoinDesk, April 2, 2018.)

Analyst Take

As I’ve written previously, corporations see this regulatory balance as a green light for investing in blockchain use-cases. Maybe the market is finally waking up to that reality. How else are we to explain that ETH prices rose on the same day AML laws came into effect?

In any case, we are reshuffling our Ethereum price forecast. We had predicted the crypto would reach $1,500 by the end of Q2 and $2,500 by the end of the year. This now seems a little hasty, so we’re extending our time horizon. We now expect Ethereum prices to reach $1,500 by the end of 2018, and $2,500 at some point in 2019.