Ethereum Soars As 'London' Hard Fork Goes Live: What's Next For The Crypto's Price?

Ethereum's ETH/USD highly anticipated “London” hard fork went live today. The software upgrade will reduce, and make less volatile, the cryptocurrency's transaction fees, known as gas prices, but could be a kick to Ethereum miners.

While the hard fork is good news for users and investors, especially due to the rise in popularity of nonfungible tokens which mostly run on Ethereum's blockchain, it will reduce the income miners are were to collect and could eventually make mining irrelevant.

Traders and investors are enthusiastic the upgrade will help Ethereum to grow substantially with some believing the second-largest-cryptocurrency could overtake Bitcoin's BTC/USD market cap within the next few years.

See Also: How to Buy Ethereum • Step by Step

The Ethereum Chart: Ethereum has skyrocketed 63% since July 20 when the crypto completed a bullish quadruple bottom pattern at the $1,718 level and bounced. When the crypto bounced, on July 21, it printed a bullish Marubozu candlestick, which indicated higher prices were to come and Ethereum has since continued a huge trek north with little consolidation on the daily chart.

On Thursday afternoon, Ethereum was trying to print a bullish green hammer candlestick with a long lower wick. The lower wick demonstrates when the crypto’s price dropped bulls bought the dip and the overall candle indicates higher prices should come on Friday.

There are two warning signs on Ethereum’s chart technical traders should be watchful of:

• Ethereum looks to be trading up in an ascending channel. While an ascending channel is bullish for the short term, as long as the crypto continues to trade within it, the pattern often forms within longer-term downtrends.
• Ethereum’s relative strength index (RSI) is registering at about 73%, which is technically in overbought territory. If Ethereum continues to trend higher it will eventually need consolidation on the daily chart to cool the RSI. When Ethereum’s RSI registered over 70% between April 29 and May 12, Ethereum fell into a months-long downtrend.

Ethereum is trading above the eight-day and 21-day exponential moving averages (EMAs) with the eight-day EMA trending above the 21-day, both of which are bullish indicators. The crypto is also trading above the 200-day simple moving average, which indicates overall sentiment is bullish.

• Bulls should want to see some consolidation take place and within that consolidation, Ethereum could settle into a bullish pattern to negate the ascending channel. Ethereum’s closest overhead resistance levels are at $2,890 and $3,240.
• Bears want to see big bearish volume come in and drop Ethereum down out of the channel. There is support below at $2,609, $2,377 and $2,151.