Ethereum Price Prediction as Dencun Upgrade Approaches in January – Can ETH Reach $4,000?
The price of Ether (ETH), the cryptocurrency that powers the smart-contract-enabled layer-1 Ethereum blockchain protocol, has been pushing higher amid a favorable macro backdrop and as investors start looking ahead to the major upcoming “Dencun” upgrade that will add new data storage capacity to the network.
ETH hit new highs for the year on Thursday in the $2,440s before pulling back below $2,400 once again, taking its gains in the past 24 hours to around 3.5%, in the past seven days to over 6.5% and in the last 30 days to over 17%, as per CoinMarketCap.
US stocks continued pushing higher on Thursday, with the S&P 500 crawling to within 1% of the record highs it printed in early 2022 above 4,800 as US yields and the US Dollar Index (DXY) continue to slide amid bets that the Fed will soon start lowering interest rates.
Expectations of easier financial and liquidity conditions ahead have been a major tailwind for crypto in recent months and look set to offer ETH continued support.
ETH volatility could pick up significantly on Friday, a day when a whopping $3.36 billion in ETH options expire as per data presented by The Block, the largest quarterly expiry on record.
But otherwise, focus is likely to remain on upcoming ETH-relevant themes, such as the positive macro backdrop, the upcoming Dencun upgrade, and growing anticipation that spot Ethereum ETF approvals are coming in 2024.
Ethereum developers are gearing up to implement the so-called “Dencun” upgrade that will enable a new blockchain feature called proto-danksharding that is expected to reduce fees for layer-2 scaling protocols and help scale the blockchain by increasing space for data.
As per a note published on Ethereum’s GitHub repository, the new upgrade will begin
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