The amount of Ethereum (ETH) held by long-term holders has reached a new milestone, reaching 70% since December 1.
This is noteworthy because by the same metric, Ethereum is ahead of Bitcoin ( BTC ), which is hovering around 70%, according to blockchain analytics firm IntoTheBlock.
Some market observers believe the rising proportion of ETH held by these holders demonstrates confidence in the cryptocurrency’s long-term potential.
The record comes amid predictions that Ethereum will overtake Bitcoin. On December 23, well-known cryptocurrency analyst Raoul Pal reiterated previous predictions that ETH and BTC may repeat the 2021 cycle in 2024.
That year, ETH continued to outperform BTC, growing 254% after initially lagging, while Bitcoin grew 45%.
Pal’s outlook is reflected in cautiously optimistic forecasts from JPMorgan analysts, who expect ETH’s market price performance to outperform BTC and other digital assets by 2024, despite their overall conservative stance on the cryptocurrency market.
The optimistic outlook for ETH expressed by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou and his team is related to the important EIP-4844 upgrade known as protodanksharding. The upgrade, which will be rolled out in the first half of 2024, is expected to significantly enhance Ethereum’s network performance by implementing a more efficient sharding approach.
While current price action still lags behind Bitcoin’s levels, more analysts also believe that the recent impressive performance of altcoins and L2 projects hints at an imminent rise in ETH, with the cryptocurrency currently trading at $2,300 over the past seven days. It rose 4.3% and increased 88.6% in 12 months.
However, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently raised eyebrows by transferring 500 ETH worth more than $1 million to Coinbase, according to on-chain analysts.
Buterin previously made a series of major transfers in September and stated in October that “he has not sold ether for personal gain since 2018.”
Recent activity from Buterin’s Ethereum wallet, including the transfer of $3.79 million in ETH over ten days in September, fueled speculation that he was selling his cryptocurrency holdings, which he later clarified was for charity rather than personal gain.
