BitOoda founder Vivek Raman, a former Wall Street trader, predicted a bull future for Ethereum (ETH) in the second half of 2024. According to Raman, three important factors holding ETH back are about to turn into positive winds starting this week.

The first factor is the launch of ETH ETFs, which Raman believes will enable new capital to enter the Ethereum ecosystem. “Crypto has largely been a closed loop; the barriers to entry are still very high,” Raman said.

“As a result, over the last 2 years we have only seen capital rotation between cryptocurrencies, which is a zero-sum situation.”

Raman pointed out that retail investors prefer to invest passively and institutions want to invest only after regulatory clarity. According to the analyst, the ETH ETF will unlock new inflows from both in one fell swoop. “Following the launch of the BTC ETF, there was $17 billion (and counting) of new capital inflows. ETH is next,” Raman added.

The second factor is the end of the regulatory witch hunt against ETH. Raman criticized U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler for firing as many bullets as possible into the Ethereum ecosystem and missing. “Ethereum has been under investigation since the Merge, making the asset a radioactive substance for institutions,” Raman said.

However, with the ETH ETF approval, the period of regulatory limbo is over. ETH is now a commodity, tokenization on ETH is now de-risked, and the lawsuit against Consensys and “Ethereum 2.0” has been dropped. “New applications and innovation can finally flourish on ETH,” Raman said.

The third factor is the changing macro landscape, which is about to favor riskier assets. Raman explained that the market has survived the fastest wave of interest rate hikes and monetary tightening since the 1970s for about two years.

Raman concluded by saying that political sentiment towards crypto, which has been shamelessly hostile for years, is changing.

*This is not investment advice.