An analysis suggests that the price of Ethereum (ETH) could rise to $12,000 this year.

Sean Dawson, Head of Research at the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Derive, said in an interview with Cointelegraph on the 8th, “If Ethereum succeeds in the Pectra upgrade, it could reach $12,000 by the end of this year,” adding that “the pro-crypto policies of the Trump administration’s second term will support additional growth.”

The Ethereum Pectra upgrade is scheduled to take place in the first quarter of this year. If successful, Ethereum’s efficiency and scalability will be improved. Dawson stated, “Ethereum needs to achieve widespread adoption of real-world assets (RWA), increased inflow of ETF funds, and expanded utilization in emerging fields such as AI agents.”

Dawson also mentioned the possibility of a price drop. He said, “In a ‘bearish scenario,’ the price of Ethereum could fall below $2,000,” and “if the Ethereum spot ETF fails to attract institutional investors or is overshadowed by the Solana ETF, the price will decline.”

Meanwhile, Ethereum is trading at around $3,300 on CoinMarketCap as of today.