Speculation has been mounting around the upcoming protocol upgrade that Ethereum will go through. However, the price of the smart contracts giant seems to have leveled off as it continues consolidation within a $25 trading range for over the past few weeks.
The ongoing stagnation phase is forcing the Bollinger bands to squeeze on ETH’s 1-day chart. Squeezes are indicative or periods of low volatility and are usually succeeded by wild price moments.
Since this technical index does not present a clear path for Ether’s direction, only a daily candlestick to close below or above this critical zone will help determine what the future holds.
Ethereum ETHUSD daily chart. Source: TradingView.com
Despite the ambiguous outlook that Ethereum currently presents, data reveals that miners recently began accumulating massively, which may lead to a bullish impulse.
Ethereum Miners Fill Up Their Bags
Santiment, a behavior analytics platform, reveals that miners appear to be back in accumulation mode. Those in charge of validating transactions on the Ethereum network have collectively increased their balance by 15,000 ETH in the past two weeks alone.
“After a mild bag dump around the time ETH began to consolidate, miners have resumed accumulating for the time being,” said Santiment.
Based on historical data, each time the mining pools behind Etherreum increase their collective balance, the price of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap surges. Now, a similar price action could be about to the place.
The Network Expands
The growth in user adoption that Ether has experienced over time adds credence to the optimistic outlook. Indeed, network growth represents one of the most important gauges to understand the health and well being of any given crypto project.
This metric can show the number of new addresses being created on a daily basis, which is is “one of the most accurate price foreshadowers,” according to Brian Quinlivan, Market and Social Media Director at Santiment.
“Generally, [we can] see that a rising network growth leads to a rising price of any project over time, in most cases. On the flip side, declining network growth for a long enough stretch can usually indicate a future slumping price with the lack of newly created addresses constantly in-flowing the coin or token,” said Quinlivan.
Under this premise, the recent spike in network growth that Ether experience on June 14 may suggest that its price will likely continue trending up in the upcoming days.
But first, Ethereum would have to break above a massive supply barrier that lies ahead of it. Moving past the $225-$240 resistance level will increase the odds for a further advance towards $280 since there isn’t any major hurdle between these price points.
Time will tell whether the support or resistance levels previously mentioned will break first to provide a clear idea of where Ethereum is headed next.
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