Crypto Rebound: The 1 cryptocurrency I would buy now

[ad_1]

The past year has been tough for cryptocurrency – and for those who owned it. Amid economic uncertainty, investors fled assets considered risky and sought safer play. But things are looking up for the cryptocurrency since the start of 2023.

The global market value of all cryptocurrencies has grown from around $800 billion at the end of 2022 to over $1.1 trillion now. The general economic difficulties are not over, but even if full recovery takes some time, it is easy to see that some crypto market players still have great long-term prospects. Ethereum (ETH -1.05%) is a perfect example. And it’s the only cryptocurrency I would buy right now.

The best blockchain among developers

Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency in the world by market capitalization after Bitcoin. It is already a leader in many areas, from decentralized applications (dApps) to non-fungible token (NFT) sales. Over 5,000 developers are building apps on Ethereum, according to a report by Electric Capital. This makes it the best blockchain for developers among the thousands in existence. And Ethereum also ranks first in NFT sales, according to data from CryptoSlam.

Last year, Ethereum underwent “The Merge”, an upgrade that made the blockchain even better. This is because it changed the method of validating transactions to proof-of-stake from proof-of-work. This reduced Ethereum’s power consumption by more than 99%. It also meant that Ethereum holders had the opportunity to earn passive income by staking their tokens.

A new upgrade – dubbed Shanghai – slated for March will allow validators to withdraw their staked assets and rewards. Until then, staked assets should remain locked in the network. A wave of pullbacks may cause slight short-term downward pressure on the price of Ethereum. But over time, the decision to allow withdrawals should attract more and more investors to stake their holdings. And that’s a big positive.

Faster and cheaper transactions

But that’s not the end when it comes to upgrades. And what lies ahead could really boost the growth of Ethereum. The blockchain aims to introduce sharding later this year. It involves splitting a database horizontally. As a result, the workload is distributed, which relieves network congestion. This should lead to faster and cheaper transactions.

This solves Ethereum’s two biggest problems: users often complain that it is both slow and expensive. With sharding, it could process a mind-boggling 100,000 transactions per second. That’s compared to about 30 today.

Ethereum is therefore today a top player in the cryptocurrency world – but the upcoming updates should make it even better for users and investors.

Now let’s look at the price. Ethereum lost over 67% last year as the entire crypto market sank. So far this year, the price of the token has climbed around 37%.

Now is the perfect time to make Ethereum history. The cryptocurrency has slid to advantageous levels in 2022, and it is starting to show signs of recovery. At the same time, his upgrades should keep him in a leading position now and for the long term. Finally, Ethereum’s price drop last year was not due to an issue with the cryptocurrency itself, but rather a reflection of investor preference during this period for safer assets. All of this makes Ethereum a cryptocurrency that I would rush out and buy today.

Adria Cimino holds positions in Ethereum. The Motley Fool has positions and recommends Bitcoin and Ethereum. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

[ad_2]