In the cryptocurrency world, the upcoming Ethereum Shanghai and Capella hard-fork is driving Ether prices up to a two-month high. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization recently surged to $1,941, its highest level since last August, showing the enthusiasm and faith investors have placed in the digital asset. Ethereum’s full transition to a Proof-of-Stake network will enable staked ETH withdrawals and is expected to go live on April 12th.
Bitcoin has also increased in price up to $28,280, forming a range-bound pattern between $27,000 and $28,500 for the past three weeks. However, it looks like particularly the altcoins have the most to gain from the upcoming hard fork. Twitter and Dogecoin speculation are leading to a surge in altcoin interest, with Cross-Chain Bridge Protocol Stargate Finance’s native STG token gaining more than 14% on Wednesday, while encrypted messaging protocol Mask Network’s MASK token sank 4%.
Will Tamplin, senior analyst at technical analysis-based research firm Fairlead Strategies believes ETH is likely to meet its resistance initially near $2,000, “a psychological threshold that roughly aligns with the August 2022 high.” He also said its initial support is near $1,670. Ethereum’s deflationary pattern has also kept investors interested, with its annualized inflation rate currently sitting at -0.32%.
Singapore-based crypto options trading firm QCP Capital further supports the trend, noting how “Q2 does indeed prove to be an alt-driven quarter, in a replay of 2020” and offering advice to “fade any sharp vol rallies from here on both BTC or ETH.”
It looks like the Ethereum network TVL is also exhibiting a strong upward trend, reaching a yearly high of $51.4 billion from Feb. 21. With whale accumulation growing by 0.5% in March, on-chain data strongly suggests that any acute decrease in Ether sell pressure following the Shanghai hard fork will not occur, driving further confidence in the cryptocurrency.
Looking ahead, it looks like Ethereum, the altcoins and even Bitcoin will see major benefits from the hardfork. Further upgrades to Ethereum’s network, liquid staking derivatives and increased on-chain usage all hint at a strong upwards trajectory, backed by both whale accumulation and investor confidence. With crypto options becoming a major player in the crypto sphere, will the altcoin frenzy be enough to push ETH and BTC prices to a new all-time high? Only time will tell.
