Key points:
- The Ethereum Merge is Completed
- What Next for Ethereum?
- Ether Price Chart and Price Projections
The long-awaited and much-anticipated Ethereum Merge has been completed. Hurrah! As well as recapping The Merge, we look at what this means for Ethereum, Ether, and the whole cryptocurrency market now and going forward. In addition, we analyse the Ether chart and provide potential price trigger points and prospects for the balance of September and into Q4 2022.
The Ethereum Merge is Completed
The Ethereum blockchain network has today successfully completed the cryptocurrency world’s biggest and most aspiring software upgrade so far, dubbed the Merge. In a Tweet today, Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder stated, “And we finalized! Happy merge all. This is a big moment for the Ethereum ecosystem. Everyone who helped make the merge happen should feel very proud today.”
As a very brief and quick recap, the Merge sees the Ethereum blockchain, which runs the crypto Ether, switch from a “proof of work” to a system called “proof of stake”, which should cut power usage by 99%, according to many sources, including Ethereum.org.
Also Read: How Much Energy Does Bitcoin Use?
What Next for Ethereum?
All eyes will not be on the stability of the Merge, and for any possible disruptions. As the Blomberg Crypto Twitter channel pointed out, “As the most important commercial highway in crypto, snags could cost $ billions and affect millions of users. (Ethereum saw DDoS attacks after its last upgrade in 2016 to reverse a hack.)”
Ether Price Chart and Price Projections
Ether, the transactional token that facilitates operations on the Ethereum network, is little changed today (Thursday 15th) in the wake of the aforementioned completion of the Merge. In line with most of the cryptocurrency market and wider riskier financial market assets, Ether did suffer significant price losses last Friday (9th September) in the wake of the very hot US inflation release (Consumer Price Inflation, CPI, was notably above expectation), see our recap Crypto Plunges With Hot US Inflation; Ethereum Merge Updates.
However, the solid rally from late August from 1422 up to 1789 rejected a test of the July swing support at 1357 and held above the basing up trend line from the June bear market low at 880. This leaves the intermediate-term basing theme intact, and in the short-term, whilst holding above 1422, we see the risk for the second half of September skewed to the upside for a retest of the 1789 peak.
Moreover, a push above the 1789 high would also likely set up a challenge to far more significant resistance, the downtrend line off of early December 2021 high and early April 2022 peak (3581). A reversal of this longer-term resistance factor would set up a more robust recovery phase into Q4 and target higher resistance levels at 2031 and 2161. The overshoot threat would be all the way up towards the 3035/3180 aera into year-end.
But a surrender of the 1422 level would set up a more negative bias for a challenge to the basing up trend line from the June bear market low, the July swing support at 1357, and possibly back to the cycle low at 880.