The strong performance of Ethereum in recent days has caught the attention of experts. In several posts on X, prominent fund managers and industry leaders have projected a bullish outlook for Ethereum (ETH), positioning it to outperform Bitcoin (BTC) with a target price of $8,000. This optimism is underpinned by anticipated regulatory advancements for the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.
Why Ethereum Could Outperform Bitcoin
Raoul Pal, Founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor, articulated his perspective on ETH’s potential resurgence in a post that has garnered significant attention within the crypto community. “I’ve been expecting ETH to start gaining lost ground on BTC. It’s partly driven by the risk-taking cycle but it’s also driven by the election,” Pal stated.
Pal highlighted two primary factors contributing to ETH’s anticipated outperformance. The first one is the enhanced utility in DeFi: “Utility tokens in DeFi begin to offer yield or reward of underlying protocol which creates network value. Most of this is on ETH,” Pal explained.
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The second factor is the adoption by Traditional Finance (TradFi). “TradFi will likely begin to build larger use cases but on the most tested, adopted chain. Think of ETH (and the L2’s) as the Microsoft of web3. No one gets fired for using it,” Pal asserted.
These developments, according to Pal, are poised to “dramatically re-rate ETH and offset the current retail adoption on other chains,” with the added advantage that ETH yields will attract more institutional players. He emphasized the potential for constructing sophisticated financial products, such as guaranteed funds, under improved regulatory conditions. “With better regs this activity will explode,” Pal concluded.
Supporting Pal’s outlook, Dan Tapiero, founder and CEO of 10T Holdings—a growth equity fund specializing in mid-to-late stage investments within the digital asset ecosystem—commented on Pal’s post: “Yup. More eloquent version of what I posted last night. Very funny.”
Tapiero referenced his own earlier assertion that “Ethereum too cheap. Gonna explode from here. Gensler and Co killed Defi in the US in ’22-24. Not killed now. Long Live US Defi. Break of $4k going over $8k in the next year.”
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However, Pal also noted a hierarchical adoption landscape within the crypto space, suggesting that while ETH may outpace BTC, it might underperform Solana (SOL) and, subsequently, Sui (SUI). “My view is that ETH begins to outpace BTC for the rest of the cycle but underperforms SOL and SOL underperforms SUI as SUI is in the ultimate performance stage of adoption – early > proven. Let’s see,” he remarked.
The discourse around Ethereum’s prospects also attracted engagement from the broader crypto community. A user named Himura (@aceddeca1) proposed an alternative investment thesis: “ETH will be fine but if that is your thesis it would be better spent on UNI especially with Unichain … Uniswap going to own chain is the base token you wish Coinbase would launch.” Pal responded succinctly, “Interesting thought.”
Additionally, concerns regarding potential biases were raised by user Galavis (@FedericoGalavis): “Be careful with SUI folks as only 0.82% of the supply has been unlocked. Are you a paid SUI promoter Raoul? If you are you better disclose.” Pal countered, “You need to do more research on all your comments,” addressing the speculation over his impartiality.
Notably, Pal serves as a Board Member at the Sui Foundation, a fact that may inform perceptions of his commentary on SUI.
At press time, ETH traded at $2,916.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com