Crypto manager Kain Warwick is ready to pay $50,000 after betting that Ether will hit $25,000 in 2025. In doing so, he joins one among many market participants who’ve overestimated the speed of Ether's recovery after its October collapse.
According to CoinMarketCap, Ether (ETH) was trading at about $2,980 on December 31, about 13.7% lower than in the beginning of the 12 months.
Part of this was because of the $19 billion crypto market liquidation on October 10, which began a downtrend and pushed Ether as little as $2,767 before slowly creeping back up.
The bet arose from an exchange between Warwick and Multicoin CEO Kyle Samani in November. Samani doubted the possibilities that Ether (ETH) could get better and reach $25,000 by the top of the 12 months.
Warwick disagreed, betting 10-1 that it had a likelihood.
“Time to pay,” Samani said in an X post addressed to Warwick on Wednesday.
Ether is down 2.18% within the last 30 days. Source: CoinMarketCap
Warwick, Like many others, the corporate had high hopes for Ether last 12 months as institutional adoption increases and the tokenization of real-world assets advances.
Speaking to Cointelegraph on Friday, Warwick lowered his recent Ether price goal for 2026 to a “measly $10,000” in light of the recent loss.
“Akkkkktually [Actually] ETH is up 50% since our bet. I just needed 8 more mistakes to win,” said Warwick.
Other analysts put the tip at about $10,000
Just weeks before Warwick doubled his price on Ether, BitMine Chairman Tom Lee speculated that the cryptocurrency could end the 12 months at around $10,000.
“For Ethereum, somewhere in between [$10,000] and $12,000,” Lee said on the Bankless podcast on Oct. 13.
Meanwhile, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, who also appeared on the identical podcast episode, said he would “consistently” keep on with his $10,000 forecast by the top of the 12 months.
Even though the value didn’t reach this value, Ethereum reached other milestones in 2025 as an alternative.
Ethereum saw two major upgrades in 2025: Pectra in May and Fusaka in December. The Ethereum Foundation explained that Fusaka brings Ethereum one step closer to providing “near easy transactions.”
On Thursday, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said Ethereum must do more to satisfy its mission: “[building] the world computer that serves as a central a part of the infrastructure of a freer and more open Internet.”
