Ethereum ‘real winner’ as price rises 76 PERCENT in month in soaring recovery

Ethereum, also known as ETH, has soared from $392 on April 1 to stand now at $691 today – a 76 percent increase.

ETH’s return to a near $700 price is a massive vote of confidence after it plummeted from a $1,330 high in December – fuelled by over-inflated hype around the cryptocurrency market.

The technology was in danger of losing its gloss as challengers stepped on its identity, and Ethereum believers dropped away in droves.

Maxwell Arnold co-author of the Laser whitepaper on Blockchain told Express.co.uk ETH will likely end 2018 at the $800 or $900 mark. He said: “It has proven to be a remarkably robust cryptocurrency as it doesn't experience the latency issues that bitcoin has, and its smart contract capabilities give it inherent functional advantages over fiat currencies, as well as other cryptocurrencies.”

Having passed the ‘bubble phase’, Mr Arnold said “we're not going to see the exponential gains that we saw before”, but he champions ETH’s “clear advantages over other cryptocurrencies, and the eventual implementation of the Casper protocol” as a reason for ETH’s “gradual rise in value” over the coming months.

Mr Arnold said more platforms will start using ETH as it is easy to use and trustworthy.

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Alexey Paikin, co-founder and managing director of Minery – the largest legal mining facility in Russia - is even more optimistic about the rising price of Ethereum, claiming by December 2018 ETH will cost between $3,000-4,000.

When it comes to trading, Mr Paikin said the “market belongs to Ethereum”.

He told Express.co.uk: "Yes. Ethereum is the real winner.”

Last month the sentiment around Ethereum was less positive after having lost a staggering 47.22 percent in value over the month.

Cryptocurrency expert Callum Blanchard claimed “it's not hugely surprising” to see Ethereum falling. He said: “With so many cryptocurrencies available, the public and investors are demanding more unique features than ever, and it is becoming harder to distinguish one virtual currency from the next.

“For example, Ethereum originally stood out for allowing 'blocks' to be created quicker, but compare that to the likes of Bitcoin Cash, or even for transaction speed - Ripple and Litecoin - and suddenly even that isn't so unique anymore.”

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But today, Nicolas Van Hoorde, co-founder of Delta, questioned the loss of faith in ETH.

He said: "Just like any other cryptocurrency, Ethereum was overbought in December '17 & January '18. And just like any other major cryptocurrency out there, it's recovering a bit now.

"Ethereum's recovery - 8 percent since last week - is higher than Bitcoin's and Bitcoin Cash's - both around 5-6 percent since last week, but I wouldn't look into this too much.

"The thing that Ethereum has going for it is that it's actually being used. Smart contracts are built on top of Ethereum basically every day, hence why Ethereum is a strong cryptocurrency and is likely to stay a very strong one."