Ethereum’s price could slip to $3,500 this week if resistance breaks
ETH has not been able to hold on to its key resistance of AUD$4,000 (US$2,900) suggesting more dips in the near term.
- Analysts believe that ETH could drop as low as AUD$2,350 (US$1,700) before mounting a major comeback over the coming few weeks and months.
- The Federal Reserve has issued a notice prohibiting its senior members from dabbling with crypto assets effective 1 May.
- NFT marketplace OpenSea has once again fallen victim to a phishing attack following a recent smart contract upgrade.
Ethereum, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency by total market capitalisation, has continued to experience a wave of bearish momentum recently, with the altcoin currently down by a whopping 10.4% over the past fortnight. At press time, ETH is trading at a price point of AUD$3,781.
In light of this ongoing volatility, many traders have had to adjust their short-term price targets greatly, with many pundits suggesting that if ETH is not able to hold support around the AUD$4,000 (US$2,900) resistance, there is a good chance that the altcoin may dip as low as AUD$3,500 (US$2,500) over the coming few days.
Not only that, many analysts believe that these price swings have forced ETH to repeatedly reject all of its core price support levels, with one analyst highlighting: "US$3,900 remains the most pivotal area for me and if we flip that, well I believe the low is in... Reject from it or fail to even reach it and we head to my main target of US$1,700."
That said, in terms of what lies ahead for ETH in the mid-to-long run, popular independent crypto expert Pentoshi noted that ETH is still showcasing a lot of fundamental strength and that the coming months could see the asset – along with a number of other alts – incur a meteoric rise.
OpenSea upgrade stalls in light of reported phishing attack
One of the world's most popular NFT marketplaces, OpenSea, has reportedly been on the receiving end of a phishing attack. The entire development comes just hours after the platform's core dev team revealed that it was going to initiate a network upgrade resulting in the delisting of various inactive NFTs from its existing interface.
To elaborate, on 20 February, OpenSea issued a smart contract upgrade requiring users to move their listed NFTs from the Ethereum blockchain to a new smart contract. Non-compliant users were informed that they risked foregoing their old, inactive listings if they failed to make the transfer within the defined time frame.
Federal officials to be prohibited from trading crypto
As per a recent meeting convened by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), senior officials associated with the central banking authority – i.e. the Federal Reserve – will no longer be allowed to hold any cryptocurrencies (or other digital token offerings) come 1 May. A note from the regulatory body in this regard read:
"[Members] are prohibited from purchasing individual stocks or sector funds; holding investments in individual bonds, agency securities, cryptocurrencies, commodities, or foreign currencies; entering into derivatives contracts; and engaging in short sales or purchasing securities on margin."
Interested in cryptocurrency? Learn more about the basics with our beginner's guide to Bitcoin, dive deeper by learning about Ethereum and see what blockchain can do with our simple guide to DeFi.
Disclosure: The author owns a range of cryptocurrencies at the time of writing
