Ethereum Price Prediction as ETH Spikes Up Above $1,600 – Here’s Where ETH is Headed Next

The Ethereum price has risen by 0.5% in the past 24 hours, reaching $1,642 as the cryptocurrency market claws back some of its losses from the past couple of days. Its current price equals a 4.5% gain in the past week and a 30% surge in the last 30 days, with the altcoin almost keeping pace with bitcoin’s increases in the past month.

Yet Ethereum can point to the kind of adoption news that Bitcoin supporters can arguably only dream of, with Visa revealing yesterday that it’s trialing stablecoin payments on the Ethereum blockchain. Given that Ethereum is already the biggest layer-one network by some margin, this is the kind of announcement that points to just how dominant it could become in the future.

Ethereum Price Prediction as ETH Spikes Up Above $1,600 – Here’s Where ETH is Headed Next

ETH’s chart is in a sensitive position right now. Its 30-day moving average (red) began rising above its 200-day average (blue) earlier in the month, and may continue rising for several more days or weeks, implying further gains.

On the other hand, given that the global economy and global markets haven’t fully recovered after 2022’s downturn, the position of ETH’s 30-day average could mark the peak of its recent rally. This fear is supported by the coin’s relative strength index (purple), which has sunk to around 60 after rising above 85 in the middle of January.

The key resistant level to watch out for here is $1,700. ETH tested this ceiling at the beginning of February and fell back down to around $1,620 in the following days, but if it can break through and stay there, it could certainly continue rising.

As noted above, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about Ethereum on a fundamental level. Most recently, yesterday saw payment giant Visa announce that it’s testing USDC stablecoin payments on the Ethereum blockchain.

This is highly bullish for Ethereum, pointing to further major use of its network in the months and years to come. In fact, it’s not the first time that Visa has boosted the layer-one network, with the firm publishing research in mid-January which declared that the Merge “paved the way for Ethereum to become a more scalable platform in the future.”

With the likes of Visa getting behind Ethereum, it seems credible to claim that it will only cement its dominant position in the coming years. Indeed, analysts believe that ETH itself will be one of the big winners this year, with Bloomberg’s Mike McGlone tweeting in December that it will likely outperform BTC.

Last September’s Merge put Ethereum on the road to becoming more scalable and efficient, while its shift to proof-of-stake (as well as other upgrades) now means that it has a tendency to become deflationary. As the tweet below from Velvet Capital outlines, periods of increased network activity result in its network burning more ETH than it issues.

Ethereum is already the biggest layer-one blockchain in terms of total value locked in, accounting for around 59.4% of the entire DeFi sector. This is only going to increase in the future, given that the Merge lays the foundations for sharding and further scalability gains, on top of Ethereum’s considerable network effects.

As a result, ETH has a strong chance of passing through various important levels this year, beginning with the aforementioned $1,700 resistant level and moving on to $2,000 and beyond. And while there’s no guarantee that 2023 will witness a full-blown bull market (rather than modest recovery), a return to more optimistic market conditions could see ETH return to $3,000 and beyond.

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Ethereum Alternatives?

ETH has very strong fundamentals, but holders may not see a big rally until the market becomes much more bullish, so anyone looking for high-potential coins may wish to consider alternatives. Accordingly, we’ve listed the top 15 cryptocurrencies for 2023, as analyzed by the CryptoNews Industry Talk team.

The list is updated weekly with new altcoins and ICO projects, so be sure to check back for new entries.

^{Disclaimer: The Industry Talk section features insights by crypto industry players and is not a part of the editorial content of Cryptonews.com.}