- The CEO of BitMEX speculates that Ethereum may rebound aggressively if the ICO market returns within a 12-18 month window.
- Joseph Lubin has doubled down on his cryptocurrency optimism as he calls the cryptocurrency bottom in 2018.
- Support moving forward: $127, $119.39, $110.94, $100, $98.91, $91.74, $84.03.
- Resistance moving forward: $130, $138.29, $155.12, $171.94, $175.19, $185.44, $197.33, $200.
Latest Ethereum News
The CEO and founder of BitMEX, the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange platform which allows for margin trading, has recently come out to predict that “ETH will rebound aggressively.”
Arthur Hayes, the previous head of trading at Citi, had recently told the Japanese arm of Cointelegraph that Ethereum is currently undergoing a drought period with the launch of ICOs. According to Hayes, the main use case for the Ethereum blockchain is for companies to come and launch their own ICO on the network — however, at this period in time, the ICO market is “dead.”
Hayes went on to estimate that that the ICO market revival is still around 12-18 months away. He predicted that the wallets of previous ICO treasuries are nearly empty which would signal a bottom in the market as they are not able to sell a significant amount of Ethereum, as in previous months.
In other Ethereum news, Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum, has recently doubled down on his previous statements that the future of cryptocurrency is still “very bright” and is “not going anywhere.”
In a recent tweetstorm, Lubin, rather boldly, had called the bottom of the cryptocurrency bear market for 2018.
Speaking about the lay-offs by his company CoinsenSys, Lubin described it as a rebalancing of priorities. He claimed that the company still invests in external projects and hires staff in positions that are aligned with the core vision of the company.
Take a look at Lubin’s first tweet in his tweetstorm:
I am calling the cryptobottom of 2018. This bottom is marked by an epic amount of fear, uncertainty, and doubt from our friends in the 4th and crypto-5th estates.
— Joseph Lubin (@ethereumJoseph) December 21, 2018
Furthermore, Vitalik Buterin, another Ethereum co-founder, has been under fire recently as he called Bitcoin SV, the resulting cryptocurrency from the BCH hard fork, a “dumpster fire” and alluded to the fact that he doesn’t believe in PoW.
Now, let’s take a look at price action for Ethereum and highlight any potential areas of support and resistance moving forward.
ETH Price Analysis
Ethereum has seen a small price drop totaling 4% over the past 24 hours, as the cryptocurrency is now exchanging hands around the $127 handle, at the time of writing.
Despite this price drop, Ethereum continues to be the strongest performing cryptocurrency within the top 5 ranked by market cap. ETH saw a 17% price hike over the past 7 trading days and a further 20.54% price increase over the past 30 trading days.
Ethereum remains in 3rd position and retains a total market cap value of $13 billion. However, as a result of its recent bullish aggression, the cryptocurrency has managed to close the gap between Ripple, ranked in second position, as it sits $1.95 billion behind.
The 41-month old cryptocurrency has seen a 45% price drop over the past 90 trading days as it now trades at a value that is 90% lower than the all-time high price.
Analyzing ETH/USD from the short-term perspective above, we can clearly see the aggressive bullish wave which saw ETH/USD start from a low around $84 on December 16, 2018 and rise to a high above $155 on December 23, 2018. This was a price increase totaling over 90% from low to high.
The market then found resistance at the bearish .5 Fibonacci Retracement level (drawn in red) priced at $155.12 before rolling over. This Fibonacci Retracement is measured from the high seen in November 2018 to the low witnessed during December 2018.
Price action has since retraced slightly. ETH is now trading slightly below the short-term .382 Fibonacci Retracement level (drawn in green) priced at $127.85.
Trend: Bullish Above $155
If the bulls can regather momentum and push price action above the $155 handle, the market condition will return to a short-term bullish trading scenario. At this moment in time, ETH/USD is presently trading in a sideways manner as the market has started to consolidate.
For this market to be considered bearish, from a long-term perspective, price action would need to plummet and break below the $84 handle.
Where is the Resistance for ETH Above $127?
If the bulls can push ETH/USD higher from the support at the $127 handle, they will first encounter resistance at the bearish .382 and .5 Fibonacci Retracement levels (drawn in red), priced at $138.29 and $155.12 respectively.
If the buyers continue to break above $155, creating new December 2018 highs, we can expect higher resistance to then be located at the bearish .618 Fibonacci Retracement level (drawn in red) priced at $171.94.
Further resistance above this can be located at the short term 1.272 and 1.414 FIbonacci Extension levels (drawn in orange), priced at $175 and $185 respectively.
Where is the Support for ETH Located Below $127?
If the sellers continue to pressure ETH/USD lower, then we can expect further support beneath to be located at the short-term .5 and .618 FIbonacci Retracement levels (drawn in green), priced at $119 and $110 respectively.
If the sellers then continue to push price action below the psychological support provided at the $100 round number handle, further support below can be located at the short-term .786 and .886 Fibonacci Retracement levels (drawn in green), priced at $98.91 and $91.74 respectively.
The final level of support to highlight lies at the downside 1.414 Fibonacci Extension level (drawn in blue) priced at $84.03.
Conclusion
According to Arthur Hayes, the ICO market is still a long way out. However, if ETH/USD can continue to climb, this could really cut his expected timeframe to a much shorter window.
Price action must create a clean break above the $155 handle before we are to expect the market to continue higher into the $200 area.
