Most big banks and investment managers expect the cryptocurrency market to pick up in 2023 after a brutal year that saw bitcoin sink around 75 per cent from its all-time high in November last year.
While bitcoin may still test a potential low of $10,000-$12,000, it could recover to $30,000 in the second half of 2023, according to Matthew Sigel, VanEck's head of digital assets research. Bitcoin had hit an all-time high of $69,000 in November 2021.MARION LABOURE, RESEARCH ANALYST, DEUTSCHE BANK: The Ethereum Merge was a major software upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain that went live in September and reduced its energy usage by 99.95 per cent, according to developers. The Surge, another anticipated upgrade, is seen reducing costs to make the ethereum network safer and process transactions faster.
"From the China crackdown to the several price crashes in earlier 2022, crypto mining has shown an approximately 1-to-1 price-power relationship. Along with the Ethereum Merge, this elasticity tends to shrink on the negative side while expanding on the positive side: most recently, the 6 per cent price rebound in early-September was followed by a 19 per cent Bitcoin power demand rebound in early-October .