Since September 21, Ethereum has traded, in most trading sessions, along the $1,200 price level, with prices ranging from $1,100 to $1,400 for most of that duration. Today, Ethereum is looking likely to continue with the horizontal trend for the next few weeks, with its current price at $1,200, and trading along the price level it has failed to move away from for the past three months.
Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, has experienced a downturn in 2022, with its value declining by 68%. This decline has been difficult for its investors and has been a reflection of the overall downward trend in the cryptocurrency market, which has fallen from a value of over $3 trillion a year ago to about $800 billion.
One of the main reasons for Ethereum’s downturn has been the shift to proof-of-stake (PoS) validation. This change has been criticized by some as rendering it essentially a “digital form of fiat” and has led to a lack of decentralization within the cryptocurrency. Some experts have argued that the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, which is used by Bitcoin and is often touted as an alternative to PoS, is what enables Bitcoin to be “the only honest money there is.”
Another factor contributing to its downturn has been the increasing number of scams and fraudulent activity within the Ethereum ecosystem. The focus on tokenization and the use of Ethereum for credit and lending has led to the proliferation of scams that have cost people billions of dollars. This has had a negative impact on the overall reputation and value of Ethereum.
All these factors are likely to impact Ethereum negatively. Therefore, I expect the current horizontal trend to continue for the coming weeks, and possibly months. My long-term view for the crypto is it will continue trading within the price margins of between $1,100 and $1,400 levels for the foreseeable future. Therefore, investors looking to for a return on their investments should be cautious and lower their expectations about Ethereum recovering in the next few weeks.