Global banking giant JP Morgan has revealed its expectations that Bitcoin (BTC) will perform better in 2024, and has adopted a cautiously optimistic stance for the cryptocurrency market.
JP Morgan analysts predict that Ethereum will reposition itself in the crypto world next year and significantly increase its market share. They emphasize that the main reason for the rise in Ethereum is expected to be the EIP-4844 update or Protodanksharding, which is anticipated to take place in the first half of 2024.
Protodanksharding is known as the initial step towards the full implementation of Danksharding, a more efficient form of sharding for Ethereum. Danksharding avoids subjecting Ethereum to a complex process that splits it into numerous fragmented chains and offers data blobs that contain more data than the data held in blocks, but are not permanently stored or accessible by the Ethereum virtual machine.
JP Morgan analysts believe that the update will be particularly beneficial for Ethereum’s Layer 2 networks. As a result, network efficiency will increase and transaction fees for Layer 2 solutions like Arbitrum (ARB) and Optimism (OP) will decrease.
Analysts also consider that the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF and the block reward halving, which are seen as bullish factors for Bitcoin next year, are already priced into the market. They indicate that the 2024 block reward halving has largely been factored into the current prices.
