Not too much is going on in the cryptocurrency markets these days. The Bitcoin price is still struggling to regain most of the ground it lost due to the China scare. Ethereum is one of the few currencies bucking the trend right now. Thanks to a 2.5% price increase over the past 24 hours, things are looking a lot better. Whether or not the Ethereum price can reach US$300 again remains to be seen, though.

Ethereum Price Gain is a Positive Sign

A lot of Ethereum holders have been waiting for the price to return to US$300 and beyond. During these troubling times, that is much easier said than done. It is evident there is still a lot of negative momentum across all markets right now, but something will have to give eventually. Ethereum is slowly setting the tone, thanks to a 2.5% value increase over the past 24 hours.

While that may not seem like much, Ethereum is only one of two top 10 cryptocurrencies to be in the green today. This Ethereum price surge has pushed its value over US$285 again, although it remains to be seen how this situation will evolve over the next few weeks. Do keep in mind that this currency’s all-time high was just under US$400 on CoinMarketCap.com. It will take a lot of positive momentum just to get close to that mark again.

Without the Bitcoin price returning to US$4,000 and more, reaching an all-time high appears to be virtually impossible for Ethereum right now. As much as this currency tries to get rid of its shackle to Bitcoin, the markets remain interlinked for the foreseeable future. Bitcoin is dominating the cryptocurrency markets in every way possible, which is not necessarily a good sign. It will be interesting to see if Ethereum – or any other currency – can break this correlation before the year is over.

Despite the somewhat low trading volume, the Ethereum price actually increased by a small margin. With US$582 million in 24-hour trading volume, Ethereum is doing what it needs to at this point in time. Bithumb is clearly dominating the overall volume right now, followed by Bitfinex and Coinone. This growing interest by Korean trading platforms is pretty significant, although it remains to be seen if this momentum can be maintained.

For the time being, it appears the majority of Ether trading takes place in USD and KRW markets. Bitcoin trading pairs are also in the top 10, but they generate far less volume than one would expect. This may also explain why the Ethereum price gained 381% against Bitcoin directly. Some pushback is needed for any altcoin to succeed right now. No currency can afford to rely on the Bitcoin price momentum for an extended period of time.

All things considered, it seems the hard fork is bringing some positive momentum to the Ethereum price right now. Whether or not this trend will continue is anybody’s guess right now. A lot of ETH holders would like to see the price go back to US$300 and higher, but that may not happen anytime soon. Cryptocurrency markets are still extremely volatile as we speak. Until things settle down a bit, substantial gains and losses will remain visible on a daily basis.