On Monday (April 11), Jason Urban, Co-Head of Galaxy Digital Trading, predicted that Ethereum ($ETH) would hit $6,000 by the end of 2022.

Galaxy Digital is “a technology-driven financial services and investment management firm that provides institutions and direct clients with a full suite of financial solutions spanning the digital assets ecosystem.” It was founded by Mike Novogratz in January 2018.

Galaxy Digital Trading (“GDT”) “provides spot, derivate, and financing liquidity to institutional clients, counterparties and venues that transact in cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.” GDT “provides access to a number of globally traded cryptocurrencies to many unique clients and counterparties across a full suite of service offerings, including: over-the-counter (‘OTC’) spot liquidity provision, on-exchange liquidity provision, OTC options and trading, and bespoke lending and structured product offerings.” It also “engages in proprietary quantitative, arbitrage and macro trading strategies.”

Urban’s comments were made during an interview with Michelle Makori, editor-in-chief of Kitco News, at last week’s Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami, Florida.

On Institutional Adoption of Crypto

“When we talked last, a lot of a large institutions were still very aspirational and how they wanted to attack the space. We saw back half of last year them stepping into the space. Now, we’re seeing people really afraid of missing out. It used to be that crypto as a whole was a career challenge, and getting in,could destroy your career. Now not getting in can be a career-limiting move. And so, we see people finding ways, and everyone has to find their their path that fits with their core culture, with their regulatory status, but we’re in the second inning, and there’s a long way to go still.“

On Partnership With Goldman Sachs

“When you think about trading derivatives specifically, there’s two factors. One is making the right call, and the second is making sure you’re going to get paid for making the right call. And I think it demonstrates that as large institutions are coming in one, they’re picking Galaxy, which is great for us — but they’re picking some of our competitors as well — to deal.

“And I think that it’s a big step because it really is that blending of TrafFi and crypto coming together in a way that makes the next step so much more more attainable.“

On Increasing Institutional Interest in Ethereum

“I think that there’s two factors. One, as people become educated in the space, basically understand what the value proposition of crypto is, they start to understand the power of smart contracts, that layer one that so many brilliant minds can build on, and Ethereum is that. That’s the copper. Bitcoin is the digital goal.

“Ethereum is digital copper. It allows for the ecosystem to be built in so many ways, as do the other layer ones. And so, people stepping in wanting to do that is important. ETH 2.0 is another driving factor. So the fact that we’re moving from a proof of work universe to a proof of state universe, I think there’s ESG implications, there’s scalability and things that now become very valuable and will allow ETH to grow. And so smart institutional investors are seeing that and they’re saying ‘hey this could be the next thing’.“

On Ethereum Potentially Overtaking Bitcoin in Market Cap

“I think, at some point, yes. But is it imminent? No. Do I think it’s something we’re going to see in the next two to three years?That’s probably the the soonest, and again I could be wrong on that, but I don’t think think it’s any time soon.

“Do I think that it could happen or do I think there’s something else that we haven’t even discovered yet that could be the next thing, right?… So there could be something else as innovation grows and as innovation is driven forward that you could see this change a little bit.“

On the Outlook for the Ethereum Price by Year End

“So, there are a few factors that can impact this, namely, the Fed and what the Fed is going to do… If you would ask me at the start of the year, I would have said I see Bitcoin at $100,000, Ether at $6,500-$7,000, in that range.

“Do I think that there’s t headwinds to that potentially? Do I think that it’s going to matter? No. So, if it’s not the end of the year, it could be Q1 of next year or Q2. It is going to happen. The sheer number of people that are stepping into this space I feel are going to just continue to push that. And the fact that there’s such utility — people don’t always see the utility because they don’t maybe understand, but there’s such utility in this ecosystem.“

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.

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