The gods of finance continue to smile on cryptos this morning, leading Bitcoin and its nearest eight competitors to massive gains.
Litecoin was the biggest winner of the day, soaring more than 49% to carry the Litecoin to USD exchange rate to $241.41.
Just to put that in perspective, our Litecoin price forecast for 2018 suggested that the currency would reach $200.00….but that was clearly too bearish. We are re-evaluating the currency’s potential, at present.
ETH prices also galloped to new levels, surging 12.53% against the U.S. dollar. This brought the Ethereum to USD exchange rate to $525.47, a record high for the currency.
Daily Ethereum Chart:
Better still, the Ethereum to Bitcoin rate also punched upwards, breaking past the 0.30 BTC level with authority. We predicted such a move was likely in our previous report.
That said, ETH has a long way to climb before reaching our Ethereum price forecast for 2018. It must triple in order to get there. We believe this is possible in the near term if, and only if, an Ethereum futures contract is announced.
Why would this send ETH prices soaring, you ask?
Well, the current boom in crypto prices began, quite precisely, when the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) announced it would offer a Bitcoin futures contract.
The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) eventually beat it to the punch, but the material point is that a futures contract inspired a spectacular rally in crypto prices. Bitcoin soared from below $5,000 to above $17,000.
Therefore, the announcement of an Ethereum futures contract—by the CBOE and CME, in particular—would likely inspire a second rally, this time focused around ETH prices.
Analyst Take:
As such, we maintain our $1,500 Ethereum price forecast for 2018.
Source: Price Confidential
