Derive’s head of DeFi protocol research, Dr. Sean Dawson, provided a bullish Ethereum price forecast. He predicted that second largest cryptocurrency it could go up to $12,000 and explained how the Pectra upgrade could contribute to a parabolic rally.

Ethereum will hit $12,000 thanks to Pectra update and other factors

Dawson predicted that Ethereum could reach $12,000 by the end of the year thanks to Pectra’s upgrade, Donald Trump’s presidency, increased adoption and an enhance in ETF inflows. According to the research analyst, this bullish case is possible if: Pectra update is successful. The update is intended to aid scale the network and improve user comfort.

Given Pro-crypto Donald Trump of his position, Dawson is also confident that the American president-elect will create a regulatory-friendly environment that will support the further development of Ethereum. For ETH to reach the $12,000 target, Dawson also said Ethereum needs to see wider adoption in the real world asset (RWA) industry. The network also needs to become a leading player in emerging sectors such as DePIN agents and artificial intelligence.

The Funds listed on the Ethereum exchange (ETFs) also have a role to play in ETH achieving this goal. Dawson mentioned that there needs to be more inflows into these funds. He warned that the lack of interest in these funds by institutions could lead to an unfavorable situation for Ethereum.

In a bear case, a research analyst predicted that Ethereum could fall as low as $2,000 due to lack of inflows into the market ETH ETF spot. He noted that this could happen if these funds lose ground as a result of the successful launch of the Solana ETF. This is certainly a possibility considering how Solana dominated last year in terms of network activity.

Dawson warned that other Layer 1 networks pose a challenge to Ethereum’s market share, although he added that it may offer higher risk and reward opportunities.

ETH continues to rally despite the recent market downtrend

Crypto analysts suggest that Ethereum still has an confident outlook despite the recent market downtrend. In a post on X, cryptocurrency analyst Moon Carl stated that despite the recent airdrop, ETH is still trading within a symmetrical triangle in the daily time slot. The analyst added that if support holds, a breakout with a bullish target of $4,100 can be expected.

Cryptocurrency analyst The Cryptomist also paved the path for Ethereum to reach up-to-date highest level ever (ATH). She emphasized a enormous falling wedge that played with symmetrical deviations. She added that ETH could retest the broken level, then reject support and enter a 4-hour oversold bullish divergence, and then rebound to a up-to-date ATH.

At the time of writing, Ethereum is trading around $3,300, having risen over the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Featured image created with Dall.E, chart from Tradingview.com