At a recent price of about $1,270, Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) is down nearly 75% from the all-time high of $4,891.70 it touched in November 2021. That stratospheric level now seems like a distant memory for Ethereum investors, who enter 2023 uncertain of what's next for the second-largest crypto by market capitalization. Is a potential comeback in the making?

Although the idea that it could nearly triple in value this year to $3,500 might sound outlandish, Ethereum was actually trading around $3,500 as recently as April 2022. But it will be a long, difficult path for it to regain that level in 2023.

If there was one catalyst that was supposed to send Ethereum's price skyrocketing in 2022, it was The Merge  -- the cryptocurrency's much-anticipated transition from a proof-of-work blockchain to a proof-of-stake blockchain. Although The Merge went as planned from a technical standpoint, it didn't from an investment perspective. The meltdown of crypto exchange FTX (CRYPTO: FTT) occurred about two months after The Merge took place, so we'll never really know what could have been. But we do know what did happen: Ethereum is down by nearly 25% since Sept. 15, the date The Merge took place. 

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Source Fool.com