(ETC) Ethereum Classic Price Prediction 2018 / 2019 / 2020 / 5 years

(ETC) Ethereum Classic Price Prediction & Forecast [Updated 09 December 2018]

Thinking of investing in Ethereum Classic (ETC) in December 2018? Here is our honest price prediction and forecast.

Overview

• Fundamental Analysis
• Technical Analysis
• Specialists’ Perspective
• Ethereum Classic Price Prediction 2018
• Ethereum Classic Price Prediction 2019
• Ethereum Classic Price Prediction 2020
• Ethereum Classic Price Prediction 5 years
• Our Prediction

Ethereum Classic (ETC) is a platform that allows for the creation of immutable smart contracts that operate autonomously within the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). The fundamental unit of Ethereum Classic is the Ether (ETC), a cryptocurrency used to power Ethereum Classic smart contracts and a store of value capable of being transferred anywhere in the world for just pennies.

Ethereum Classic is the result of a hard fork from the original Ethereum protocol back in May 2016, resulting in two separate co-existing blockchains, Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC). Originally splitting over the controversy surrounding the Ethereum DAO hack, which saw an exploit in the DAO smart contract exploited, allowing the hacker to steal 3.6 million ETH from the fund, at the time worth around $55 million. Due to a clause in the DAO smart contract, funds withdraw from the DAO were locked for 28 days, giving the Ethereum community time to deliberate on whether the blockchain should be forked to roll back the hack, returning the funds to the DAO. The decision was made to hard fork, but a small minority of Ethereum users refused to support the new blockchain, arguing that code is law, and the hack should remain. Out of this, the original Ethereum blockchain lived on and was renamed to Ethereum Classic. Throughout 2018, Ethereum Classic (ETC), along with the rest of the cryptocurrency industry, suffered heavy losses, losing as much as 91 percent of its value and reaching its lowest value in over 19 months. Because of the terrible state of the market, we at BeInCrypto expect the price of Ethereum Classic to sink as low as $3.40 by the end of 2018, before beginning its recovery in the second half of 2019. [bctt tweet=”We at BeInCrypto expect the price of Ethereum Classic to sink as low as $3.40 by the end of 2018, before beginning its recovery in the second half of 2019″ username=”beincrypto”]

Fundamental Analysis

From a fundamental perspective, the Ethereum Classic cryptocurrency arguably offers several advantages over Ethereum (ETH). One of these is a limited total supply, with the total number of ETC being capped at a maximum of 230 million, unlike Ethereum which has no upper limit for the supply. Since its inception in 2015, Ethereum Classic (ETC) has seen two distinct boom periods, one in mid-2017 and the other in early 2018. Follow this, Ethereum Classic begun to fall into an overall decline along with the rest of the crypto market. Much to the dismay of its supporters, one of leading Ethereum Classic development teams, ETCDev, announced its closure due to financial strains by the end of 2018.  This event was a significant development for Ethereum Classic (ETH) as, unlike its descendant blockchain, the size of the community and development support has been relatively low. Despite the falling prices and financial insecurity, Ethereum Classic remains in development, and still has significant support from miners, with an average hash rate of around 9TH/s, compared to Ethereum’s (ETH) 175TH/s.  The active mining community indicates that there still remains a significant amount of support for the cryptocurrency. With the recent release of the Saturn Wallet and Radex — the first DEX built on ETC — it appears that development is still trudging forward, though as the number of active nodes begins to dwindle, Ethereum Classic may continue losing ground to Ethereum.

Technical Analysis

Between 2015 and 2018, Ethereum classic has demonstrated a common and classic chart pattern known as the double top, with a peak June 2017 and January 2018.  ETC first witnessed explosive growth again USD back in March 2017, with a bull run that lasted until late June the same year after ETC reached a peak value of over $20. At the time, this movement was unique to Ethereum Classic, and what not tied to changes in the Bitcoin price, indicating the growth was purely organic.  Following this, the price had crashed by the end of September indicating the end of the first bull run. The next upward trend followed the overall trend of the general cryptocurrency market in 2017 and saw Ethereum Classic reach an all-time high of over $45 by January 2018. 

Since then, the value of ETC has continued to slide southward as the crypto market moved into a bearish phase. During this time, Ethereum Classic fell to as low as $3.33, losing more than 90 percent of its maximal value. November and December 2018 have been among the worst months for Ethereum Classic so far, as the coin breached several supports thresholds leading to losses of more than 60 percent in just a month, completing the double top reversal.

Specialists’ Perspective

When Ethereum Classic was announced and diverged from what would become the Ethereum main chain, it was mostly seen as a parody or joke — with few giving it any hope of surviving for very long. The project suffered a lack of developers, and few top traders would buy Ethereum Classic as they did not believe it had much potential for growth. Despite this, a community managed to form around the blockchain and grew dramatically as the number of people agreeing with the ETC ethos “code is law” increased. Though Ethereum Classic grew substantially, it did not enjoy the same success as Ethereum as the vast majority of developers focused on developing smart contracts and DApps for the stronger chain — Ethereum. Surrounding all the negativity, Ethereum Classic has been listed on a variety of major exchanges in its time, with almost every new listing sparking increased growth for the coin, gradually pushing ETC up the charts, at times reaching as high as #5 place. Since then, market sentiment as a whole has fallen drastically, and Ethereum Classic has largely fallen out of favor with analysts, who now generally expect the future price of the Ethereum Classic coin to dwindle. LongForecast is particularly bearish on Ethereum Classic’s fate, expecting ETC to gradually lose value in the coming years, falling to just $3 by December 2018. Dean Pappas, an advisor at networking startup Marlin Protocol, tells us he doesn’t have high hopes for ETC, expecting it to “hover around $3.75 for a good while,” while arguing its future looks bleak. WalletInvestor, a site focused on making price predictions, remains relatively bullish on ETC, expecting it to swell by over 100 percent in the next year to close 2019 at over $8 while predicting as high as $32 by 2023. One of the most bullish Ethereum Classic predictions comes from TradingBeasts, who expect ETC to finish 2018 on a high note, closing the year at $15.74, or more than 3x its current price. TradingBeasts expects 2019 to be a strong year for ETC, forecasting as much as 600 percent growth by year-end.

Ethereum Classic Price Prediction 2018

Between January to December 2018, the market capitalization for Ethereum Classic (ETC) has dropped from $3.5 billion to just over $430 million, close to an 88 percent crash in just 12 months. As the bear market continues to drag down prices of all the leading cryptocurrencies, projects like Ethereum Classic (ETC) and other forked coins appear to be bearing the brunt of the impact.

Following rumors of a potentially hostile takeover between the different teams of Ethereum Classic (ETC) and Ethereum, ETCDEV — one of the largest ETC developments teams — was forced to shut down citing a lack of funds. This news immediately sent ripples through the Ethereum Classic community, causing sudden losses of close to 30 percent in just days in a time where market sentiment was already low. It is likely that this significantly changed investors outlook for the cryptocurrency, and potentially reduced the long-term viability of Ethereum Classic. Throughout the year, ETC smashed through several long-standing supports and reached lows not seen since April 2017. As it stands, Ethereum Classic remains on a downtrend, currently sitting however around $3-$4, potentially ending the year sub $3 if the trend continues.

Ethereum Classic Price Prediction 2019

While it looks very likely that Ethereum Classic (ETC) will close 2018 at a price point below $4 after a bear year, 2019 could be a different story entirely. Currently, several major updates are in the pipeline for Ethereum Classic, one of which is the implementation of a J.I.T compiler into the ecosystem, making Ethereum Classic adoption much smoother for both end users and developers while massively improving the throughput of the network. Another big update that was initially scheduled for 2018, but now appears to be pushed back to 2019 is the completed ‘Emerald Platform,’ including a software development kit, significant improvements to the Sputnik virtual machine — Ethereum’s version of the Ethereum Virtual Machine and the addition of Orbita sidechains.  Once implemented, these upgrades could substantially improve the platform’s desirability in the eyes of DApp developers, potentially enticing them to launch on Ethereum Classic instead of Ethereum. If the remaining development teams manage to implement these updates within the second quarter of 2019, then the increased adoption that could result may be enough to raise the minimum price of Ethereum Classic more than 10x higher than its current rate, potentially seeing ETC hit $50+ in 2019. 

Ethereum Classic Price Prediction 2020

With the Emerald Platform in place, the next set of optimizations that will likely be focused on is the scalability of the network, support for decentralized applicants and interoperability with other blockchains. Achieving these could see Ethereum Class (ETC) reach over $300 as its usage skyrockets.  Currently, ETC developers are planning to achieve this by increasing the number of Orbita interoperable sidechains by 2019. However, given the current state of affairs, it seems that this phase of development will likely be pushed back to 2020 or beyond. With the Orbita sidechains in place, Ethereum Classic (ETC) would be ready to tackle more than 1,000 transactions per second (TPS), significantly more than current blockchains can offer. This feature will be pivotal in a time where blockchains are increasingly competing in terms of speed and performance.  Besides this, as the craze surrounding initial coin offerings (ICOs) begins to die out, user attention will likely shift towards high-quality decentralized applications, with the blockchain best catering to this interest experiencing the majority of the growth in 2020. If, or when, this happens, Ethereum Classic (ETC) will likely be in direct competition with other famous smart-contract enabled platforms such as Ethereum (ETH), NEO, Cardano (ADA), and EOS. This neck-to-neck competition along with an influx of new third-party developers will likely lead to the growth of all competitors, potentially seeing Ethereum Classic’s price rise to more than $300. 

Ethereum Classic Price Prediction 5 years

While it is unlikely that Ethereum Classic (ETC) will be able to replicate the success of Ethereum or any other major smart contract capable platform, there is still a lot of hope and money backing the asset, with the potential to over $500 if it can better compete with Ethereum.  With over $400 million in market capitalization, the onus of responsibility solely lies on the shoulders of the remaining four developer groups that are tasked with maintaining and improving the Ethereum Classic (ETC) ecosystem and whether or not they are able to achieve the targets they have set on their roadmaps. Regardless of how Ethereum Classic developers, the cryptocurrency market, in general, is likely to experience bouts of exponential growth within the next five years, whether or not the Ethereum Classic developers are able to leverage these to improve its position remains to be seen.  Conservative estimates indicate that by 2023, Ethereum Classic (ETC) could see growth of more than 5,000 percent, reaching a price of over $200 as its market capitalization exceeds $20 billion. As USD predictions on this time-scale are often wildly inaccurate, we at BeInCrypto forecast only that ETC will appreciate considerably if it can survive so long. 

Our Prediction

BeInCrypto prides itself on realistic forecasts based on real data rather than fantastical, imaginative and biased predictions or excessive speculation. Because of this, we forecast Ethereum Classic (ETC) will reach a significantly higher market capitalization, potentially seeing north of $500 under optimal conditions.  Although Ethereum Classic (ETC) has briefly demonstrated strength in past, it failed to maintain its momentum as the market turned sour in January 2018.  The current goals the Ethereum Classic (ETC) development teams have etched out on the official roadmap could potentially make it a strong competitor in the upcoming DApp race. However, Ethereum Class lacks the sizeable community that other platform coins have, placing it at a serious disadvantage. If Ethereum Classic manages to turn this around following the implementation of the Emerald Platform, it may well be able to climb the crypto rankings. Though, as of writing, this appears unlikely due to lack of operating funds, internal disputes and the ever-mounting expectations caused by a perpetually delayed roadmap.

Period	Ethereum Classic Price Forecast
	Best Case Scenario	Worst Case Scenario
2018	$3.90	<$3
2019	$50	$0.70
2020	$100	$0.40
5 years	$500+	<$0.40

Nevertheless, investors should always do their own research and tread lightly before investing in cryptocurrency. All cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, are extremely volatile. Never invest more than you can afford to lose, and be prepared to lose everything.  What do you think of our price prediction for Ethereum Classic (ETC) in 2019? Can it ever catch up to Ethereum? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!  Disclaimer: The contents of this article are not intended as financial advice, and should not be taken as such. BeInCrypto and the author are not responsible for any financial gains or losses made after reading this article. Readers are always encouraged to do their own research before investing in cryptocurrency, as the market is particularly volatile.