The Ethereum price has seen a slight dip of 0.5% in the last 24 hours, down to $1,821, as the overall market falls by 1% today. Over the past week, ETH’s price decreased by 1%, and over the past month, it lost 13%. However, it remains up by 52% since the beginning of the year. This decline coincides with Lido rolling out withdrawals on its Ethereum staking platform, allowing users to withdraw their locked ETH, which could potentially be sold. With roughly 6.6 million ETH staked through Lido, a sudden influx of Ethereum into the market is possible, though it’s important to note that withdrawals are queued and will gradually unfold.
ETH’s chart has recently become more intriguing, as technical indicators suggest a breakout rally. The 30-day moving average (yellow) has climbed above the 200-day (blue), forming a ‘golden cross’ – a signal that often indicates rallies. Additionally, the relative strength index (purple) has just surpassed 50, another momentum indicator.
This shift in ETH’s technical indicators occurs as Lido enables withdrawals for its Ethereum staking platform. Lido users can exchange their Lido Staked Ether (stETH) for the ETH they’ve previously staked, which could impact ETH’s price. However, not all ETH withdrawals can happen simultaneously, as requests join a queue that would take months to fulfill if all stakers chose to withdraw. Conversely, the successful introduction of withdrawals could attract more users to Lido and Ethereum staking in general, potentially pushing ETH’s price further upward.
Data from Dune Analytics shows that the ratio of staked ETH to non-staked ETH has increased to 16.6%, up from 10% in the previous year. With the market adapting to ETH withdrawal availability, this ratio is expected to rise in the coming months, taking more ETH out of circulation and increasing its price.
Looking at the bigger picture, Ethereum maintains a higher adoption rate than most other layer-one networks. Notable examples include French bank Société Générale trialing a euro-denominated stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain, Visa testing USDC payments, and Microsoft piloting an Ethereum wallet in its Edge browser. Since Ethereum accounts for 58% of the entire DeFi sector, it is well-positioned for further rallies. With positive investor sentiment, Ethereum could easily return to $2,000 in the coming weeks, and potentially near $3,000 later in the year.
On the other hand, newer altcoins such as SpongeBob (SPONGE) may be on the brink of substantial gains, particularly if they receive big exchange listings. SpongeBob, an ERC-20 meme token, has seen gains of over 2,000% since listing directly on Uniswap on May 4. While not much is known about its team or origins, it has capitalized on the recent surge of interest in meme tokens, which have become increasingly fashionable in a flagging market. With more than 12,000 holders and a total maximum supply of 40.4 billion, the potentially deflationary SpongeBob token could see further growth as it secures additional exchange listings.
Source: Cryptonews
