ETHBTC

Ethereum Could Bottom Out Relatively Soon Against Bitcoin, Says Analyst Benjamin Cowen – Here Are His Targets

September 21, 2024 The Daily Hodl

Ethereum bulls retain hopes of $10K despite ETH price chart bear flag

December 6, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Ethereum bulls retain hopes of K despite ETH price chart bear flag

Ethereum risks dropping to $3,200 as its latest ETH price decline triggers a classic bearish setup.

Ethereum's native token Ether (ETH) looks poised to extend its selloff this week as it wobbles near a key support level of $4,000.

ETH price dropped by over 5.50% on Dec. 6 to an intraday low at $3,913. In doing so, it slipped through upward sloping support that constituted an Ascending Channel that — more or less — appears like a Bear Flag, a bearish continuation setup.

*ETH/USD daily price chart featuring Bear Flag setup. Source: TradingView*

Conservative traders typically spot Bear Flags when an instrument consolidates higher inside a parallel channel after a considerable price drop (called Flagpole). They anticipate the price to break below the Flag's lower trendline. And when it does, traders set their profit target by measuring the Flagpole's height and subtracting it from the breakout level.

Applying the Bull Flag strategy to Ether's ongoing price trends, one can expect the cryptocurrency to drop towards $3,200 in the sessions ahead. Interestingly, the level is also near the 0.5 Fib line (~$3,264) of the Fibonacci retracement graph drawn from the $720-swing low to the $4,808-swing high.

More confirmation needed

While the Bear Flag setup hints at more pain for Ether ahead, some analysts believe the Ethereum token still has more room to run to the upside.

For instance, PostyXBT, an independent market analyst, asked his massive follower-base on Twitter to turn attention to Ether's deep price wick from Saturday, underscoring how the cryptocurrency's sudden crash from near $4,240 to as low as $3,575 (data from Coinbase) was met by traders with an aggressive buying response.

"The weekly close above $4k means that ETH is one of the strongest looking coins out there," the pseudonymous analyst noted, adding that not many held the structure "despite the wick."

*ETH/USD weekly perpetual futures contract chart. Source: TradingView*

Meanwhile, another popular analyst Crypto FOMO also referred to the Saturday rebound as a reason to stay bullish on Ether. In an analysis published Monday, the analyst said that the cryptocurrency's ability to hold its rising channel support (the Bear Flag structure) might prompt bulls to push its value to $10,000.

"That is also because Ethereum is crashing a lot lesser than other cryptos, which is very bullish," the channel noted while highlighting Ether's growing strength against Bitcoin (BTC).

*Top ten cryptocurrencies' performance against USD and BTC in the last 30 days. Source: Messari*

On its weekly chart, Ether looks to have been eyeing a move toward $6,500 after breaking out of its Ascending Triangle.

In detail, the ETH price left the Triangle range in the week ending Oct. 25 after consolidating inside it for a little over four months. Nonetheless, traders returned to test the structure's upper trendline as support, as is common across bullish continuation setups.

*ETH/USD weekly price chart featuring Ascending Triangle setup. Source: TradingView*

As long the price holds itself above the Triangle's upper trendline, its likelihood of continuing its rally upwards remains higher — by as much as the structure's maximum height, as shown in the chart above.

On the other hand, a decisive break below the Triangle's lower trendline risked invalidating the bullish setup.

Strong fundamentals

James Wo, CEO/Founder of DFG Group — a Singapore-based venture capital firm, blamed Ether's consistently positive correlation with Bitcoin behind its latest price corrections, noting that a spot market selloff in the BTC market, led by the ongoing Omicron FUD, has had exchanges liquidate $2 billion worth of traders' margined positions, hurting ETH in tandem.

But the analyst, too, anticipated a price rebound for ETH based on its successful adoption across the emerging nonfungible token (NFT), decentralized finance (DeFi), and metaverse space.

*Top five DeFi chains based on total-volume locked. Source: Defi Llama*

"The levels of open interest levels seen up to this correction for both BTC and ETH were an important indicator that a bearish scenario was highly probable," Wo explained, adding:

"We still believe that fundamentals are strong and long-term valuations are still very low based on the technological advancements and contributions we are witnessing from this industry."

ETH/USD was trading at $4,050 at the time of this writing.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Ethereum acts as a ‘hedge’ in Bitcoin price crash as ETH/BTC hits 3-year high

December 4, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin

The second-largest cryptocurrency posts dwarfed losses compared to Bitcoin's 21% price decline Saturday.

Ethereum's native token Ether (ETH) plunged alongside other cryptocurrencies on Dec. 4. Still, its move downside did not deter it from hitting a three-year high against Bitcoin (BTC), the world's leading crypto by market capitalization.

The ETH/BTC exchange rate jumped a little over 11.50% to hit 0.0835 BTC for the first time since May 2018. The pair's price rally appeared in contrast to Ether's 15% price drop against the U.S. dollar on Saturday, which appeared in the wake of a market-wide selloff that saw Bitcoin plunging by as much as 21% intraday.

*ETH/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView*

The ETH vs. BTC "hedge" narrative emerges

While Ether's losses were substantial, they were relatively milder compared to Bitcoin in USD terms as the ETH/BTC pair surged to a three-year high. At the same time, some analysts believed that investors started treating the second-largest cryptocurrency as a haven against Bitcoin during the Saturday crash.

"It seems that investors are taking ETH as a hedge here," said Crypto Birb, an independent market analyst in a tweet Saturday, pointing to a four-hour ETH/BTC price chart (as shown below) that showed the pair retracing sharply after testing its 200-period moving average (the orange wave) as support.

*ETH/BTC four-hour price chart featuring 200-period MA support. Source: TradingView*

Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad, chief product officer at Bitpanda, noted that ETH/BTC's November close was the best one in the last 45 months, meaning bulls still had "some power left for an additional run."

"Ethereum is outperforming Bitcoin by a large margin this year [...] It increased its market dominance to 22%. The number of active addresses on the network continues to climb while the net issuance of ETH continues to fall which might be the main reason for its rapid rise."

Technical outlook

As Cointelegraph covered earlier, Ether has shown the prospects of continuing its upward trend due to a technical support pattern, dubbed Ascending Triangle.

On Saturday, the ETH/BTC pair broke out of the Ascending Triangle range to the upside, accompanied by a slight increase in its trading volumes. In a "perfect" world, the pair's move upside should stretch until it hits levels at length equal to the maximum distance between the Triangle's upper and lower trendlines when measured from the breakout point.

In a "perfect" world, the pair's move upside should stretch until it hits levels at length equal to the maximum distance between the Triangle's upper and lower trendlines when measured from the breakout point.

*ETH/BTC weekly price chart featuring Ascending Channel pattern. Source: TradingView*

As shown in the chart above, the Triangle's upside target, from the breakout point near 0.077 BTC, puts the profit target near 0.1 BTC.

Increased utility in DeFi, NFTs back Ethereum’s 3-year high in its ETH/BTC pair

December 2, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin

Ethereum price hit a new all-time high in its ETH/BTC pair and a classic technical analysis pattern suggests the altcoin has a lot more upside.

This week, Ether (ETH) price reached a new 2021 high against Bitcoin (BTC), bringing its year-to-date returns slightly above 350% and according to technical analysis, the rally could extend even further.

On Dec. 1, bids for the ETH/BTC pair hit 0.0835 BTC on Coinbase for the first time this year. The upside move came as a part of an uptrend that started mid-October after Ether bottomed out against Bitcoin at 0.0630 BTC to carve out almost 41% price retracement.

*ETH/BTC daily price chart. Source: TradingView*

Growing adoption propels Ether's boom

The ETH/BTC price rally reflect deep interest in Ethereum, which is currently the world's leading smart contract platform by users and market capitalization. This is slightly different than the scenario for Bitcoin, which typically functions as a speculative hedge against inflation across global economies.

As of late, Ethereum has been become a core asset within crypto growth sectors like nonfungible tokens (NFT), decentralized finance (DeFi) and the Metaverse. The firms operating in this space require Ether to run their smart contracts, which in turn, has increased demand for the altcoin and supported a steady uptrend in its price.

*Total valued locked inside ETH-based DeFi platforms (including staking). Source: Defi Llama*

Demand for Eth is expected to remain robust in the coming year and this simple fact has many analysts projecting prices within the $6,000 to $10,000 range.

Matt Maley, the chief market strategist for Miller Tabak + Co., anticipated additional gains for Ether should it break above its mid-November high around $4,900. According to Maley, Bitcoin bulls remain under pressure near the cryptocurrency's mid-November and mid-April highs of $69,000 to $65,000.

If Ether manages to hit and hold a new all-time high while BTC trades in a downtrend, Maley said:

"It will show that Ether has become the new crypto of choice for most investors."

The technical outlook for Ether against Bitcoin has also been suggesting stronger bull runs for the former in the future.

A prolonged bullish breakout could be in play

The latest bout of buying has had ETH/BTC break above a multi-month resistance trendline that constitutes an ascending triangle pattern and now the pair eyes an extended bull run towards 0.1 BTC, as shown in the chart below.

*ETH/BTC weekly price chart featuring Ascending Triangle setup. Source: TradingView*

Typically, ascending triangles are continuation patterns, meaning, they tend to send the price in the direction of its previous trend by as much as the maximum height between the upper and lower trendline when measured from the breakout point.

ETH/BTC's breakout point comes out to be near 0.077 BTC while its triangle's maximum height is 0.022 BTC. In a "perfect" world, this would place the ETH/BTC pair on path to 0.1 BTC, but given the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency sector, anything is possible.

Ethereum eyes rally against Bitcoin, with ETH price showing hidden bullish divergence

October 25, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Price

The second-largest cryptocurrency will see over 8% growth against its top rival should the technical outlook play out.

Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), has been declining against its top crypto rival, Bitcoin (BTC), since Sept. 3.

Ether dropped in value against Bitcoin by almost 25% after topping out in September at 0.07955 BTC. As the top altcoin declined, it left behind a trail of lower highs and lower lows, thus forming an ascending channel.

Later, ETH/BTC broke the channel to the upside on Saturday, raising anticipations about a strong extended recovery trend. But a selloff on Sunday and the ongoing session had traders test the channel’s resistance trendline as support.

ETH price charts suggest bullish divergence

The sentiment raised Ether’s possibility to reenter the falling range as shown in the chart below.

*ETH/BTC daily price chart featuring bullish divergence. Source: TradingView*

At the same time, the formation of higher highs in ETH/BTC’s daily commodity channel index (CCI) showed hidden divergence against the pair’s downtrend. For the uninitiated, CCI is a momentum oscillator that measures an instrument’s variations from its statistical mean to spot potential reversals.

“A hidden divergence is always an indicator for a possible trend reversal,” noted Stefan Krecher, a Germany-based market strategist, adding that ETH/BTC may rebound in the coming sessions also as the pair’s daily relative strength index (RSI) remains “not overbought.”

Krecher anticipated Ether to hit its monthly pivot point around 0.071586 BTC, almost over 8% of the current levels. The upside target also coincided with the 0.618 Fib line (0.071505 BTC) of the Fibonacci retracement graph in the chart above.

On the flip side, reentering the descending channel range risked sending ETH/BTC to its range support trendline near 0.058238 BTC.

Ether price against the dollar

The bullish ETH/BTC price outlook appeared as Ether held $4,000 as solid support while rebounding over 2.6% Monday. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s price retraced almost 3.5% after setting up a similarly strong price floor near $60,000.

As a result, ETH/BTC merely looked weaker because Bitcoin rallied strongly against the United States dollar than Ether. Nevertheless, the Ethereum token’s prospects looked bullish, as earlier reported by Cointelegraph, with the aid of an ascending triangle setup shown below.

*ETH/USD daily price chart featuring ascending triangle setup. Source: TradingView*

Ether broke out of the pattern on the daily timeframe but with little trading volume, showing weakness in the price trend.

The cryptocurrency now tests the triangle’s upper trendline as support for bullish confirmation. Should a rebound follow suit, the price could eye new record highs above $4,384, with the triangle setup’s target sitting near $6,500.

ETH supply crunch

Additionally, the supply of Ether tokens has been declining after the Ethereum network’s London hard fork. Namely, the Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1559, which went live with the update, started burning ETH that it previously paid to miners.

Data collected from WatchTheBurn shows that the Ethereum network has destroyed almost $2.25 billion worth of Ether tokens since the London hard fork’s launch.

Additionally, the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract has attracted more than 8 million ETH, thereby removing them from circulation for at least a year.

*Total value staked in Eth2 smart contract. Source: CryptoQuant*

Moreover, regulated funds have increased their Ether holdings from 2.43 million ETH in November 2020 to 4.08 million ETH today, signifying increasing institutional demand.

Ethereum loses key support level as ETH price falls to two-month lows against Bitcoin

October 12, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin

ETH/BTC dropped below its 200-day exponential moving average for the first time since March 2020, raising risks of more downside.

Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), rallied by more than 15% in the first 12 days of October. But, compared to Bitcoin’s (BTC) 30% gains in the same period, the second-largest cryptocurrency is currently in a downtrend when priced in BTC.

So far into October (and the fourth quarter of 2021), the ETH/BTC exchange rate has plunged by over 12%, reaching 0.060215 BTC for the first time in more than two months on Oct. 12.

The drop also pushed ETH/BTC below one of its longest-standing support zones, the 200-day exponential moving average (200-day EMA; the orange wave), as shown in the chart above. This raises the risk of more downside with 0.055304 BTC serving as the next possible target.

Bitcoin dominance rises on ETF hopes

More evidence for ETH/BTC’s weakness came from Bitcoin’s rising dominance in the crypto market.

In detail, the Bitcoin Dominance Index, which measures the flagship cryptocurrency’s capitalization against the rest of the crypto market, surged from 42.39% on Oct. 1 to 46.64% on Oct. 12. On the other hand, Ether’s dominance dropped from 18.15% to 17.57% in the same period.

*Bitcoin dominance index daily chart. Source: TradingView*

That shows that more capital rotated into the Bitcoin market than altcoins so far into October.

The rising Bitcoin dominance coincided with expectations that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission could approve four Bitcoin-based exchange-traded funds (ETF) in a matter of weeks. The applicants are Global X Bitcoin Trust, Valkyrie XBTO Bitcoin Futures Fund, WisdomTree Bitcoin Trust, and Kryptoin Bitcoin ETF.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler hinted at an optimistic outcome for Bitcoin ETFs despite the SEC rejecting similar applications for eight years in a row. Gensler noted that this time, however, the Bitcoin ETF applicants filed under the Investment Company Act of 1940, which offers higher investor protection.

Earlier this week, two “light” Bitcoin ETFs started trading in the U.S., named Invesco Alerian Galaxy Crypto Economy ETF (SATO) and Invesco Alerian Galaxy Blockchain Users and Decentralized Commerce ETF (BLKC). However, the funds invest 80% of their assets in crypto-related companies, not Bitcoin itself.

*SATO ETF 15-minute price chart. Source: TradingView*

The SEC also approved a third crypto equity ETF. Dubbed the Volt Crypto Industry Revolution and Tech ETF (BTCR), the fund will gain exposure “in entities that hold a majority of their net assets in bitcoin or derive a majority of their earnings from bitcoin mining, lending or transacting.”

Bitcoin to go “insane?”

James Seyffart, an ETF analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, said the news would be “very bullish” for Bitcoin. Similarly, independent market analyst Lark Davis also predicts “insane” market reactions should the SEC approve a Bitcoin ETF having exposure to actual BTC.

I don't think people are fully prepared for how insane the markets will go once we get a #bitcoin ETF approved!
— Lark Davis (@TheCryptoLark) October 8, 2021

So, it appears the speculation over Bitcoin ETF approvals raised traders’ appetite for the top cryptocurrency in recent days, with BTC outperforming its top rivals, including Ether.

Nonetheless, Ethereum boasts a strong decentralized application ecosystem and remains the key force behind the booming decentralized finance and nonfungible token sectors.

David Gokhshtein, founder of Gokhshtein Media and PAC Global, noted that Ethereum’s healthy network effect could send Ether to $10,000 by the end of this year. Meanwhile, as Cointelegraph covered, an ongoing supply crunch in the Ether market should remain a major talking point for bulls moving forward.

Ethereum drops more than Bitcoin as China escalates crypto ban, ETH/BTC at 3-week low

September 24, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin

The second-largest cryptocurrency falls 13.30% versus Bitcoin's 9.38% decline as China's move scares investors away.

The price of Ethereum's native token Ether (ETH) crept lower Friday after China extended its crackdown on cryptocurrencies by deeming their transactions as "illegal."

"Financial institutions and non-bank payment institutions cannot offer services to activities and operations related to virtual currencies," the People's Bank of China said in a statement on its website Friday, adding that online crypto services to Chinese residents offered by offshore exchanges are also "illegal financial activities."

Bids for the ETH/USD pair dropped by up to 13.30% to $2,735 in response. At its week-to-date (WTD) high, traders paid as much as $3,346 for a single Ether token but fell to as low as $2,651 after a tumult in China's heavily indebted property sector hit crypto markets.

*ETH/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView.com*

As a result, Bitcoin, the world's leading cryptocurrency, also fell from its WTD high of $47,358 to as low as $2,651. Meanwhile, its prices fell by 9.38% on Friday—a massive intraday decline but lower than Ether's drop in the same period.

So it appears, traders decided to dump the digital assets that posted better long-term profits than Bitcoin. For instance, even after the latest declines, ETH/USD's year-to-date (YTD) gains came out to be above 280%. In contrast, Bitcoin's YTD profits were a little over 40%.

ETH/BTC falls to multi-week lows

Ether also underperformed directly against Bitcoin, with the ETH/BTC pair falling to 0.066 BTC for the first time in more than three weeks. At its yearly high, the pair traded at 0.079 BTC.

*ETH/BTC daily price chart. Source: TradingView.com*

Nonetheless, Ethereum charts suggest that Ether would grow stronger against Bitcoin in the coming sessions. That is mainly due to a Bull Flag formation in ETH/BTC market, a bullish continuation pattern that surfaces when prices consolidate lower/sideways (FLAG) following a strong uptrend (FLAGPOLE).

A Bull Flag typically sets its profit targets at length equal to the Flagpole's size if the price breaks above its channel's upper trendline. That said, ETH/BTC may undergo a bullish breakout to eye its previous local high of 0.0824 BTC.

Bullish fundamentals persist

Meanwhile, the Ethereum token also expects to surge overall because of its growth in the emerging decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. As Cointelegraph reported earlier, the total value locked (TVL) across the decentralized applications (dapp) industry reached $142 billion in August 2021, out of which 68% was concentrated on the Ethereum network.

That ensures more demand for Ether tokens for its ability to power smart contracts that back dapps. On the other hand, its active supply across the board anticipates declines as holders continue to lock their ETH holdings into Ethereum's proof-of-stake smart contract.

*The total value staked into the Ethereum PoS smart contract has jumped from 11,616 ETH to 7.76 million ETH in nine months. Source: CryptoQuant*

More supply expects to go out of circulation as the Ethereum network continues to burn a portion of its daily 13,000 ETH issuance following its Aug. 5 London Hard Fork upgrade. According to WatchTheBurn, the network has burned 358,616 ETH worth over $1 billion.

Ethereum eyes $6.5K bullish target as ETH price chart paints ‘Cup and Handle’

September 16, 2021 Coin Telegraph

<div>Ethereum eyes .5K bullish target as ETH price chart paints 'Cup and Handle'</div>

ada

The success rate for cup and handle patterns in forex and stock markets, on daily timeframes, are 65% and 68%, respectively, per a Harvard study.

Ethereum blockchain's native asset Ether (ETH) faces the prospect of exploding towards $6,500 in the coming sessions.

ETH looks like a cup and handle too. Thoughts?
— Raoul Pal (@RaoulGMI) September 15, 2021

The bullish analogy takes cues from a textbook technical pattern dubbed "Cup and Handle." In detail, a Cup and Handle structure develops after the price first rallies significantly to the upside and then corrects to carve out a rounding bottom, called the "cup."

The move follows a rebound towards the prior high and a failed breakout attempt above the said level. As a result, the price pulls back once again and grinds out a smaller rounding bottom, called the "handle."

Ultimately, the price returns to prior high for the second time and breaks out successfully, resulting in a move equal to the cup's depth.

So it seems the ETH/USD exchange rate has painted a cup and is now forming a handle, as shown in the chart below.

*ETH/USD daily chart featuring cup and handle formation. Source: TradingView.com*

The depth of the ETH/USD's cup is nearly $2,437. As a result, should the pair retest $4,112-resistance for a bullish breakout move, its prospect of rising by as much as $2,437 will increase. In doing so, Ether would eye a run-up towards $6,549.

A Harvard study shows that cup and handle patterns have a 65% and 68% success rate in forex and stock markets, respectively, on daily timeframe charts.

Institutional FOMO on

Ethereum's upside analogy appears against the backdrop of growing institutional interest.

In a report published on Sept. 7, Standard Chartered, a multinational banking giant headquartered in London, discussed Ether's economic use-case, adding that the cost to purchase one ETH could grow to $26,000-$35,000 in the future.

"The current transition to ETH 2.0 could transform ETH by increasing its functionality and scalability and reducing environmental concerns, although it could raise more complex security issues," the report stated.

"Timelines for ETH 2.0 rollout could slip, but in the near term, decreasing net supply — as ETH is staked for ETH 2.0 — should provide price cushion."

In an interview with CNBC, Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Invest, that her firm would split its crypto investments into 60% Bitcoin and 40% Ethereum. The former AllianceBernstein executive envisioned a higher demand for ETH tokens in the wake of ongoing growth in Ethereum-backed decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible token (NFT) craze.

"I'm fascinated with what's going on in DeFi, which is collapsing the cost of the infrastructure for financial services in a way that I know that the traditional financial industry does not appreciate right now," Wood told CNBC anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin at the Salt technology conference in New York.

"Our confidence in ethereum has gone up dramatically as we've seen the beginning of this transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake."

Rivalry risks

Meanwhile, Ethereum also faced criticism for its inability to resolve higher transaction fees and network congestion issues. That prompted emerging layer one blockchain rivals like Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX), and Cardano (ADA) to eat up a portion of Ethereum's market hegemony.

It would take Ethereum another two years to become a fully functional proof-of-stake protocol, per its official roadmap. The transition consists of a three-step process. In the first, Ethereum has implemented the Beacon chain to introduce staking on a separate layer.

The next step scheduled sometime later in 2021 will see Ethereum's original chain merger with the Beacon chain. Meanwhile, Ethereum will introduce “shard chains” that expect to enable Ethereum to process more transactions in the final phase.

Ethereum price poised for 40% rally vs. Bitcoin after breaking out of four-month range

August 31, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin

The Ethereum blockchain native asset broke its downward sloping resistance trendline to the upside, triggering a textbook bullish outlook.

Ethereum's native token Ether (ETH) faces the prospect of logging a 40% price rally against its top rival Bitcoin (BTC), per a classic technical pattern.

Dubbed Symmetrical Triangle, the structure develops after the price forms a series of higher lows and lower highs. Doing so results in a convergence of two trendlines with a degree of symmetry, which appears like a Triangle.

Analysts treat Symmetrical Triangles as trend continuation indicators, i.e., they usually send prices in the direction of their previous trend following a clear breakout. As a result, the ongoing ETH/BTC price boom expects to undergo an upside continuation after having fluctuating inside a similar Triangle structure for the last four months.

*ETH/BTC weekly chart featuring a Symmetrical Triangle setup. Source: TradingView.com*

Part of the reason is Ether's attempt to break above its Triangle consolidation setup, after rising seven weeks in a row by 179%. If it does, the ETH/BTC exchange rate could rise by as much as the Triangle's maximum height (~0.025 BTC) from the point of its breakout (~0.069 BTC).

That puts the pair's profit target near 0.094 BTC, about 40% above 0.069 BTC.

Ether's outperformance

Ether's bullish outlook against Bitcoin emerges as it outperforms the benchmark cryptocurrency in dollar terms on an intraday basis.

On Tuesday, the ETH/USD exchange rate rose 6.61% to $3,442, its highest level in three months. Comparatively, Bitcoin posted dwarfed gains, rising only 2.5% to $48,169, portraying a higher interim demand for Ether tokens among traders.

*ETH/USD versus BTC/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView.com*

Dmitry Mishunin, founder and CEO of smart contract audit firm HashEX, projected Ethereum and similar "smart contract-enabling blockchains" to keep outperforming Bitcoin in the long run, citing their superior utility.

"The duo of Cardano and Ethereum has the propensity to harbor countless innovative projects," Mishunin said, adding that Ethereum has the potential to flip Bitcoin in the long run.

"Bitcoin only relies on its capped supply and the first-mover advantage, a trend many investors are beginning to substitute for unique technology that can drive a blockchain-dominated future."

Jon Ovadia, founder, and CEO of crypto exchange Ovex, also said that Ethereum has better fundamentals than Bitcoin at this moment, largely due to its recent network update that aimed to add deflationary pressure to Ether through a fee-burning mechanism.

Thus far, about 146,878.7 ETH (worth approximately $492.3 million) have been burnt from the total circulating supply," Ovadia said, adding that:

"The potential for a more superior Proof-of-Stake infrastructure through the highly anticipated launch of Ethereum 2.0 will also make the blockchain more usable, thus driving the coin’s utility and its price growth."

Bitcoin outlook, meanwhile

So far into 2021, Ether has grossly outperformed Bitcoin due to its incremental adoption in the booming decentralized finance and nonfungible token industries. As it stands on Tuesday, the year-to-date profits for Ether are 373% versus Bitcoin's 63.55%.

Nevertheless, Mike McGlone, the senior commodity strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, said Bitcoin would eventually catch up to Ethereum's gains, thus leading to $100,000 by the end of 2021, more than double where it is trading at the time of writing.

Fundstrat Global Advisors’ Tom Lee also envisioned a six-figure bid for Bitcoin as long as it stays above its average price over the last 200 days — a long-term momentum measure.

Ethereum bounces but ETH price in danger of turning $2.3K into new resistance

July 14, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Ethereum bounces but ETH price in danger of turning .3K into new resistance

Bitcoin

The Federal Reserve chairman sidelined inflation concerns, which appears to have coincided with a relief bounce for Ethereum.

Ethereum's native token Ether (ETH) reclaimed $2,000 in the early New York trading hours Wednesday as crypto traders assessed the Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's prepared congressional testimony.

The ETH/USD exchange rate surged 7.19% to reach its intraday high of $2,019.90. Likewise, Bitcoin (BTC), whose 7-day positive correlation with Ether stands at 0.84 above zero, climbed, albeit by a modest 0.75%, hitting $32,379.

*Ether bounces of key support area Wednesday morning. Source: TradingView*

Powell gave his semi-annual monetary policy report to Congress on Wednesday, a day after the U.S. consumer price index report showed an increase of 0.9% between May and June, reaching 5.4% for the first time in three decades.

In prepared remarks ahead of his congressional testimony, Powell noted that inflation in the coming months would remain elevated. Nevertheless, the central bank chief added that rising consumer prices wouldn't deter them away from their ongoing bond-buying policy.

Powell said that the threshold of limiting its $120 billion monthly debt purchases—that have cushioned the U.S. economy throughout the coronavirus pandemic—is "still a way off." In saying so, he cited the U.S. labor markets, stating that its full recovery "still has a long way to go."

The statements appeared after a Bank of America survey of the global fund managers, who thought the global economy would keep on improving, dropped dramatically from 91% in March to 47% in July. The same poll named long Bitcoin—bet on rising BTC/USD rates—one of the most crowded trades alongside long ESG and long commodities.

*Economic expectations have peaked. Source: BoA*

But both Bitcoin and Ether dropped after Tuesday's CPI report and ahead of Powell's testimony release, thus drawing flak from critics for not behaving like a haven in the face of higher consumer prices. Part of the reasons were fears that the Fed would signal tapering its bond purchases sometime in 2020 and hike its benchmark lending rates only in January 2023.

Powell's assurance that their plans to taper is still away injected short-term optimism in the cryptocurrency market, benefiting Bitcoin and Ether alike.

Just saw the news. Inflation! Are any of us surprised? Government prints more dollars, so the other ones are worth less. Happy to be a #bitcoin hodler. The best inflation hedge.
— Tim Draper (@TimDraper) July 14, 2021

A technical bounce?

Ether's latest upside also appeared in the wake of a technical support level having a recent history of limiting ETH/USD's bearish bias.

*ETH stuck inside a symmetrical triangle range. Source: TradingView*

The said price floor serves as a rising trendline in a symmetrical triangle pattern. Ether has been fluctuating inside the said structure since mid-June, as shown in the chart above, which raises its probability to retest the triangle's resistance trendline (above the $2,300 level) in the coming sessions.

Nevertheless, Symmetric Triangles are continuation patterns that typically send the prices in the direction of their previous trend. Since Ether's current triangle formation appears in a downtrend, the path of ETH/USD's least resistance is to the downside.

*Symmetrical triangles breakout scenarios. Source: Scanz Trading Blog*

Therefore, Ether continues to face bearish risks on technical patterns. Nevertheless, the cryptocurrency has performed better than expectations despite a brutal crypto market sell off in the second quarter of 2021.

In its Q2 report released in July, data intelligence firm CoinMetrics noted that Ether finished the financial quarter 13.2% higher versus Bitcoin's -38.88%. It wrote:

"ETH benefited from a renewed surge of retail interest which was partially driven by the rapid rise of NFTs. Although NFT media interest peaked in March, it helped bring unprecedented mainstream attention to Ethereum which led to a flood of new users."

More upside prospects for Ether come from London hardfork. The upgrade would implement four improvement proposals on the Ethereum blockchain. One of the proposals, dubbed as EIP-1559, expects to make ETH a deflationary asset by burning a portion of the fee collected from Ethereum users.

Investment sentiment tracker Santiment appeared a bit cautious, however, warning traders about excessive speculation attached to the London hard fork event. An excerpt from its July 7 newsletter reads:

"One could say that 'This time it's different,' as ETH can be staked now, and with EIP1559 coming up, it'll be a gamechanger, etc. [...] It's all speculative at the moment, and no one will really know how the market will react to the implementation. It could be 'buy the rumor, sell the news.'

More confirmation needed

Strong fundamentals

The ETH vs. BTC "hedge" narrative emerges

Technical outlook

Growing adoption propels Ether's boom

A prolonged bullish breakout could be in play

ETH price charts suggest bullish divergence

Ether price against the dollar

ETH supply crunch

Bitcoin dominance rises on ETF hopes

Bitcoin to go “insane?”

ETH/BTC falls to multi-week lows

Bullish fundamentals persist

Institutional FOMO on

Rivalry risks

Ether's outperformance

Bitcoin outlook, meanwhile

A technical bounce?

Share this video