Ether (ETH), the cryptocurrency that powers the world’s largest and most widely used smart-contract-enabled layer 1 blockchain Ethereum, has been nudging higher in recent trade and was last changing hands around 0.5% higher in the last 24 hours in the $1,610 area, now up close to 5% from earlier weekly lows in the $1,530s.

Crypto markets have seen a broad recovery since jitters regarding FTX’s plans to sell $3.4 billion in digital assets weighed on sentiment earlier in the week.

Digital asset investment firm Arca’s CIO Jeff Dorman was quoted in the crypto press on Tuesday as saying that the market reaction to potential FTX sales was an overreaction.

“The way crypto market makers and traders are front-running the FTX supply shows a complete misunderstanding of how a syndicated sale process works,” he said, adding that “this isn’t an every-man-for-himself VC unlock… This is a court-ordered process that Galaxy will sell very slowly and opportunistically”.

24-hour trading volumes of nearly $10 billion in the Ether market, as per CoinGecko, suggest potential dip buying activity.

US Inflation Continues to Fall

Elsewhere, US inflation data, despite the headline YoY and Core MoM numbers coming in a little above expected, may also be cushioning sentiment.

That’s because the YoY rate of Core inflation posted a big decline to 4.3% from 4.7%, easing pressure on the Fed to continue hiking interest rates.

The US central bank embarked on a historic interest rate hiking cycle last March and has since lifted interest rates 525 bps to 5.25-5.5%.

Core inflation is more closely monitored by the Fed as, according to them, it gives a better representation of price pressures in the US economy than the headline figures, which can be easily buffeted by volatile food and energy prices.

With interest rates already well above the Core inflation rate, meaning a positive real interest rate, the Fed will want to avoid tightening financial conditions too much, as they still hope to achieve a “soft-landing” scenario for the US economy, defined as bringing inflation under control without causing a recession.

Price Prediction – Where Next for Ether (ETH)?

Recent Ether price stabilization will not assuage fears about a price drop to sub-$1,500 levels, given the cryptocurrency’s still unfavorable near-term technical outlook.

Ether remains stuck below its 21DMA, which has been offering strong resistance recently, as well as below a downtrend that began in August.

A break above these resistance levels will be needed for the short-term outlook to improve.

For now, with Ether in the process of forming a bearish descending triangle structure, a drop to sub-$1,500 levels remains a strong possibility.

A potential retest of the March lows around $1,370 remains a strong possibility.

Arguably, the fundamental outlook doesn’t warrant a decline back to such levels, so strong dip buying would be likely.

Ether future ETF approvals in the US are likely in the next few months, with spot ETF approvals likely next year.

Meanwhile, Ether has for now been able to avoid the US SEC’s wrath of being labeled as a security (unlike major rivals like BNB, SOL and ADA).

It seems likely that after 2022’s slump, Ether remains in the early accumulation stages of a new bull market that is yet to really get going.

Can ETH Reach $10,000?

If Ether is in the early stages of a new bull market, big gains could lie ahead.

ETH posted gains of 5,700% from its December 2018 bear market lows of around $70 to its 2021 record highs in the $4,800s.

With the market has matured and higher market caps achieved over time, Ether is unlikely to post another 5,700% gain from its 2022 lows at $880 this bull market, which would take its price to over $50,000 and market cap to over $11 trillion.

But could ETH rally 11x from its 2022 lows to rise above $10,000 in the coming years?

Absolutely, assuming the Ethereum blockchain is able to maintain its rapid adoption and position as the dominant Web3 infrastructure provider.

Remember, ETH is deflationary thanks to its token burn mechanism, more ETH are constantly being removed from supply as ETH staking gains ground, and one of the fastest areas of crypto growth is in the Ethereum layer-2 protocol space (the likes of Arbitrum, Optimism, Base and Polygon), all of which rely on Ethereum’s underlying security.

Ethereum will also be undergoing major network upgrades to address scalability concerns in the coming quarters, further boosting its use case, such as danksharding.

A price of $10,000 at the current supply of just over 120 million ETH tokens would imply a market cap of around $1.2 trillion, which seems very reasonable and attainable in the coming years, assuming a broad crypto bull market that also sees the likes of Bitcoin rally into the $100,000s per coin.

Alternatives to Consider

It’s always smart for crypto investors to hedge their bets, given the unpredictability of the market.

One excellent Ether (ETH) alternative that crypto investors should consider is a new coin being launched by Wall Street Memes, one of the internet’s largest retail investing communities.

Wall Street Memes, with its over 1 million following across various social media channels, has traditionally described itself as “the king of stonks” (stocks for the uninitiated), but is also looking to claim the crown of being “the king of crypto”, with the launch of its very own meme coin token $WSM.

The presale of $WSM has been a resounding success, with over $25 million raised, and dozens of major crypto industry influencers and analysts backing the coin for major success.

And investors are running out of time to get involved, with the presale scheduled to end in under 14 days.

Get in now on a token that could match or even surpass the likes of Pepe Coin, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.

Buy $WSM Here

^{Disclaimer: Crypto is a high-risk asset class. This article is provided for informational purposes and does not constitute investment advice. You could lose all of your capital.}