Ether's Use Cases Could Drive Price Up To $40K, Predicts Abra CEO

Ethereum has the potential to hit $40,000 given its much better use cases compared to Bitcoin, Bill Barhydt, the CEO of cryptocurrency trading platform Abra, has said.

In an interview with CNBC published Friday, Barhydst said, "I think you are talking potentially $30,000 – $40,000 Ethereum," without mentioning a time frame.

“It’s deflationary. The use cases are through the roof. It’s just all the stars are lining up for Ethereum in my opinion right now," he added.

Ether was trading at $2,568 as of 2.00 a.m. ET, CoinMarketCap data showed.

Speaking about the use cases of Ether, Barhydt said, “Ethereum’s network effect is based on this idea that it could become the world’s computers. It’s being used for stablecoins, NFTs [non-fungible tokens], DeFi [decentralized finance] … and gaming now.”

Comparing the network effects of Ethereum to Bitcoin, he said that the network effects of Ether are more bullish than Bitcoin in the short term.

“If the gas fees and the transaction fees come down, which is the promise of the proof-of-stake, look out, because now all of the impediments of those network effects are taken out of the way," he said.

However, the executive warned of a "sell-the-news: effect when the platform will upgrade to proof of stake.

Last month, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management released a 20-page primer on Ether, highlighting the point that Ether's use cases are much better than Bitcoin.

The report noted that Ethereum acts as an app store owned by no one, and it makes possible things such as decentralized finance applications and NFTs.