Ether Stays Around $1,900 Ahead Of Next Week’s Shanghai Upgrade

TL;DR

• Ether has been trading around the $1,900 region over the past few days.

• The coin could rally higher in the coming days as the Ethereum community awaits the upcoming Shanghai hard fork.

Ether Trades Around $1,900

Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has been trading around the $1,900 region over the past few days. This comes a week before the Shanghai hard fork is expected to take place on the Ethereum network.

The second-largest crypto by market cap reached the $1,941 region on Wednesday before losing more than 1% of its value to now trade at $1,887 per coin. 

Market experts believe that Ether’s recent price action supports near-term upside, with many of them expecting Ether to hit the $2k level over the coming days. 

The performance comes ahead of next week’s Shanghai upgrade on the Ethereum network. Ethereum core already have approved April 12 as the date for the  Shapella network upgrade. The upgrade would be activated on the Ethereum mainnet, a move that would complete the Ethereum network’s transition to a proof of stake mechanism.

The mainnet hard fork will feature five Ethereum Improvement Proposals, including EIP-4985, which will enable staked Ether withdrawals on the Beacon Chain. The upgrade will complete Ethereum’s transition from proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus.

Ether could face huge resistance at around $2k, with its support level sitting at $1,670. 

Bitcoin Struggles To Reach $30k

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has also not been fairing better. BTC has been trading around the $28k region over the past few days and continues to struggle to make a move toward the $30k psychological level.

With Bitcoin trading sideways (trading between $27k and $28.5k) in the past three weeks, it is tough to determine the short-term direction of the leading cryptocurrency. 

Dogecoin’s recent rally and Etheruem’s upcoming hard fork has seen attention move to altcoins in recent days. However, Bitcoin maintains its lead as it has 45.7% market dominance score.