Update Sept. 24, 1:07 p.m. UTC: This article has been revised to include insights from Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at the crypto intelligence platform Nansen.
The cryptocurrency market might witness its first prolonged cycle driven by increased institutional investment and trading products in the Web3 sector, enhancing accessibility to digital asset investments.
Some investors anticipate a crypto “supercycle” that could challenge the traditional four-year crypto market cycle associated with Bitcoin (BTC) halving, allowing for digital asset valuations to exceed this historical pattern.
For Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency, this supercycle might be spurred by Wall Street’s expanding adoption of blockchain technology, as stated by BitMine Immersion Technologies, the largest corporate holder of Ether.
BitMine suggests that a key motivator for Ether might be “Wall Street venturing into the blockchain,” according to the firm.
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Despite the positive outlook for a potential supercycle, some Wall Street players are less optimistic about Ether’s price path.
The US investment bank Citigroup has placed a year-end price target of $4,300 for Ether, notably lower than ETH’s record high of $4,953 achieved on August 24.
“Current prices exceed activity estimates, likely fueled by recent buying momentum and enthusiasm over use-cases,” Citi noted in a Monday statement observed by Reuters.
Ether has appreciated approximately 108% over the last six months and traded at $4,177 at the time of writing, as per TradingView data.
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AI agents seen as a catalyst
BitMine perceives the growing adoption of agentic artificial intelligence protocols as a second potential driver for an Ethereum supercycle.
AI agents will necessitate a “neutral platform” like a public blockchain, which could enhance Ethereum’s application portfolio as the leading smart contract platform.
“For AI to be genuinely valuable, it needs to act economically. Therefore, AI agents must have the capability to purchase goods and receive payments,” stated Ben Horowitz, co-founder and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
“If you’re an AI, you can’t possess a credit card,” Horowitz remarked in a Tuesday X post. “Crypto serves as the economic framework for AI,” he continued.
“Credit cards aren’t functional as currency for AI, so the rational choice, the internet-native currency, is crypto.”
“Though many innovations are still developing on Ethereum, this does not guarantee that Ethereum will emerge as the predominant or most apparent victor should this prediction materialize,” Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at Nansen, shared with Cointelegraph. “Agent AI and other virtuals have also been developed on Base, and several projects are present on Solana, as well as some that have their own chains.”
“This suggests an increasing potential for competition across multiple chains rather than a singular blockchain reigning supreme,” he added.
AI agents refer to software programs crafted to automate and perform specific tasks on behalf of users.
Autonomous on-chain agents can interact with blockchain protocols, facilitating functions such as trading, token exchanges, portfolio management, and engaging with decentralized finance platforms.
Several leading fintech companies are allocating resources toward AI agents. On September 2, PayPal Ventures spearheaded a Series A investment round for decentralized AI infrastructure provider Kite AI, securing $18 million and raising its total funding to $33 million, as reported by Cointelegraph.
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