Interesting changes continue to occur in the world of cryptocurrency. Despite a good first half to the year, the Ethereum price has since struggled to retake US$350. Such a development occurred last night, as the Ethereum price seemingly cut through this resistance like a hot knife through butter. Whether or not this momentum will be sustained for more than one full day is the big question.
Ethereum Shows Bullish Signs
It is good to see most altcoins having finally recovered now that Bitcoin’s bull run has been kept in check for some time. Although it is only a matter of time until the Bitcoin price reaches US$8,000 and beyond, the spotlight is on alternative currencies right now. The Ethereum price, for example, has noted strong gains against both USD and BTC over the past 24 hours. Moving up by over 7.4% in both departments isn’t too shabby.
Indeed, we saw a solid degree of accumulation for Ethereum throughout most of this week. Someone was more than content to keep the Ethereum price around the US$330 mark without seeing it gain or fall by too much for any length of time. This flat chart was bound to be shaken up sooner or later. There could have easily been a major Ethereum price crash as well, but so far, things are playing out pretty well. Do keep in mind this is the weekend, and the regular trading trend will be resumed tomorrow.
Thanks to these solid gains in both USD and BTC terms, the Ethereum price has finally surpassed US$350 once again. It is good to see this momentum appear at such a critical point in time. Most people tend to overlook the altcoin markets right now, but that would be a grave mistake. All top 10 cryptocurrencies are in the green with the exceptions of Bitcoin Cash, Dash, and NEO. All three of those currencies saw a semi-pump last week, though, and a correction was bound to happen.
Ethereum’s surge was partially made possible by increasing trading volume. It has been a while since we last saw over US$1 billion worth of ETH traded in a 24 hour period. There’s a strong demand, to say the very least, especially considering there are four fiat currency trading pairs leading the charts. This is not merely a case of people converting Bitcoin to Ethereum and vice versa, like with most other altcoins which have seen “organic” growth over the last week.
Speaking of the Ethereum trading volume, Bithumb is the biggest benefactor right now. Bitfinex is competing for the top spot, but it is over US$70 million in 24-hour volume behind. Coinone is currently the third-busiest exchange, with barely over half the volume of Bitfinex. It’s an interesting top three, and it goes to show that Bithumb is mainly responsible for recent price gains. Traders on the latter platform have gone absolutely nuts for most of the supported altcoins as of late.
How the Ethereum price will evolve over the next few hours and days remains anybody’s guess. The current momentum seems to favor the Ethereum price, but one also has to keep in mind that profit-taking will likely set in soon. A lot of buyers are nearing a 10% profit, which is more than sufficient for some to liquidate holdings and repeat the cycle. At the same time, the current amount of trading volume may make that a far-too-risky strategy.
