Ether Price to $14,000, Doge Over $1, XRP to $10, Crypto CEO Forecasts

• David Gokhshtein says the upgrade on ethereum’s network will drive the price up to $14,000.
• Ether’s price will then drive up the rest of the crypto sector, even bitcoin, he says.  
• He estimates bitcoin will hit $85,000, dogecoin above $1, and XRP as high as $10.

Ethereum’s anticipated hard fork EIP-1559 went live Thursday, causing a 9.6% intraday spike in price. The upgrade was designed to make transactions on the blockchain more efficient and affordable by using a hybrid system of base fees and tips.

Pushing all the technical jargon aside, the true impact remains widely unknown. The bottom line, though, is that the new process will include burning part of the transaction fee and reducing the amount of ether in circulation, making it deflationary. 

Using the ethereum network requires paying a base fee, also known as the gas rate. These rates previously weren’t fixed but rather negotiable per transaction, known as a first-price auction.

Gas fees had spiraled out of control, making the ethereum upgrade a necessary move especially with the benefits its blockchain brings to the table, according to David Gokhshtein, the founder of Gokhshtein Media, a cryptocurrency-focused outlet. He’s also the CEO of Pac Protocol, a digital-currency payment network. 

But perhaps of most interest to investors is the deflationary aspect, which Gokhshtein said would make ether more scarce and drive up the price. That’s why he’s been buying regularly, regardless of short-term price swings, or dollar-cost averaging. 

The update is a welcome sign for investors like Gokhshtein who believe in the future of ethereum and its diverse uses, where even bitcoin falls short. 

“When you talk bitcoin, you talk about money, monetary. With ethereum, you can build on it. And there have been plenty of institutions that have bought into it. There are banks that are getting into ethereum and building on it,” Gokhshtein said.

He said ethereum’s upgrade will bring the

bull market
back into swing. Bitcoin, with the largest market cap, is usually seen as the crypto market’s driver. Its price tends to affect altcoins. But with this upgrade, Gokhshtein said he believes ethereum could take the wheel. 

“I actually see ethereum pulling the market up and, maybe the unpopular opinion, bringing bitcoin with it,” Gokhshtein said. 

He bets that $12,000 to $14,000 — a more than 400% increase — would be a conservative number for ether to hit by the end of 2021 and early 2022. If it weren’t for other unknown factors such as potential regulatory issues, it could even go as high as $16,000 to $18,000, he said. 

“In the future, I see ethereum being a store of value and being the silver to bitcoin’s gold, which isn’t a bad thing. Between the two, this is not a sporting event, either. At the end of the day, we need ethereum,” Gokhshtein said. “If we’re going to build, ethereum is the best platform for me personally to build on.” 

As a long-term holder of ether and a strong believer in its platform, his approach is to dollar-cost average all day long.

But he doesn’t think it will surpass bitcoin, which he believes will hit about $85,000 by the end of the year; the larger crypto traded as high as $43,170 on Friday. He said this is also a conservative price estimate that factors in other projections made by technical analysts. Adrian Zduńczyk, a technical markets analyst with 329,000 Twitter followers, is among those projecting that bitcoin could hit as high as $120,000 by the end of the year or early 2022.

“With all the institutions and corporations not really being fully in yet, I still believe we have a lot of money on the sidelines that hasn’t come into the market yet, and I’m super bullish on that,” Gokhshtein said. 

Like other crypto evangelists, Gokhshtein makes his projections with conviction, not hesitating to take a bullish stance. He previously claimed that dogecoin will go to a dollar and has reiterated that he stands by that prediction. He sees the token as a gateway entrance that many people use to become acquainted with the crypto market before moving on to other coins.

“I really do believe that it will surpass a dollar just based on that people put value on things. It’s not just one person. If people deem something to be worth something, it’ll get there. And I don’t believe it’s just Elon Musk pushing dogecoin to a dollar. I really believe that Robinhood — and obviously the meme economy — has helped dogecoin a lot,” Gokhshtein said

As for the XRP community, he threw them a bone as well. The crypto has been making negative headlines and its price has followed suit amid a legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Gokhshtein told Insider that as soon as a settlement is reached, XRP could hit anywhere from $7 to $10. The crypto was last trading around $.73 as of Friday, according to CoinMarketCap.