While Ethereum ($ETH) – which is down 26.44% since New Year’s Day and is, at press time on February 4, changing hands at $2,202 – suffered the biggest drop among the major cryptocurrencies, AI predicts it could hit a remarkable all-time high ($ATH) later in 2026.
Making the forecasted upside even more staggering, it is noteworthy that the entire cryptocurrency market erased some $400 billion within less than a week between late January and early February, and other prominent digital assets like Bitcoin ($BTC) and XRP are down a more tame 14% year-to-date (YTD).
Indeed, it was the losses and the growing expectation that assets like $ETH are headed toward their cycle lows in 2026 that prompted Finbold to decide to consult the advanced artificial intelligence (AI) of ChatGPT on whether Ethereum has already moved past its yearly high, or if investors can look forward to a new rally.
ChatGPT estimates Ethereum’s high-water mark for 2026
According to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Ethereum’s long-term supply dynamics, including token burns, large-scale staking, and its central role in decentralized finance, support the possibility of a renewed rally despite recent losses.
In fact, in the AI prediction, the large language model (LLM) not only estimated an upsurge is possible, but that it could be large enough to take the Ethereum price to a new $ATH of $9,800.
ChatGPT then turned to Ethereum’s historical lag behind Bitcoin, explaining it remains at play, and the AI described the August peak near $4,800 as merely a local high, adding that investors are yet to see a mirror of $BTC’s own October rally above $125,000.
When challenged about its forecast contradicting recent trends, and certain analysts who anticipate the cryptocurrency market is headed toward the cycle lows in 2026, OpenAI’s flagship platform doubled down.
Specifically, ChatGPT stated that even digital asset bloodbaths tend not to be linear and that both a dead cat bounce and a genuine late rally are in order. Considering the AI remarked that the most important question for its predicted high is timing, it was also asked to offer a timetable.
AI reveals when Ethereum could hit $9,800
Perhaps surprisingly, ChatGPT estimated that $ETH could hit the $9,800 target in the fourth quarter, either in October or November. Coincidentally, Ali Martinez, a prominent on-chain analyst, forecasted that Bitcoin will hit its cycle low – somewhere between $38,000 and $50,000 – in October.
Should both the AI and human-generated predictions come true, it would mean that Ethereum has recorded a new all-time high ($ATH) at the same time $BTC is hitting the cycle low.
Featured image via Shutterstock
