Ethereum Weekly Forecast: Why interest in Ethereum outpaces Bitcoin?

• Ethereum 2.0 staking is a marketing gimmick according to the crypto whale @Joe007.
• Ethereum battles long term trendline resistance as consolidation becomes dominant on low volatility.
• There is a lot of demand for platforms offering smart contracts, DeFi and staking.

Ethereum begins fresh consolidation although in a lower range following the bearish wave across the market on Thursday. For more than a week, Ethereum had remained pivotal at $240. The seesaw movements took place after ETH/USD rallied from June lows at $215 to highs in July highs around $245.

As mentioned above, Ethereum consolidated mainly at $240 ignoring the beginning of an altcoin rally that saw cryptoassets such as Chainlink, Cardano, Stellar and Tezos rally in the first and second week of July. Reports have shown that the Ethereum correlation with Bitcoin price has gone higher in the last 30 days. For this reason, Ethereum price held in its sideways trading reminiscent of Bitcoin’s motionless trading action.

Ethereum staking

Ethereum 2.0 has been in development for more than two years now. The protocol is expected to transform Ethereum from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol. The Ethereum community is waiting with bated breath for the opportunity to lock up their tokens in the network and earn rewards for it. Staking in PoS protocols is used to ensure the health of the network as well as contribute to its security.

However, a renowned crypto whale, @Joe0007, reckons that Ethereum staking is nothing but a marketing ploy to keep investor interest at the roof. In his opinion, the feature will see users lock up their Ether forever while the whales continue to offload their treasures from the current ETH 1.0 protocol at zero competition.

Ethereum staking” is a marketing ploy to suck greedy ETHtard plebs into useless “2.0” and trap their ETH there forever while insiders, whales and Eth Foundation gang unload remained riches of ETH 1.0 without retail competition. Wicked clever, just like other ETH scams.

The Ethereum 2.0 launch is taking longer than expected. Users hoped for the launch at the beginning of the year but as things are turning out, it would be a miracle to have it in operation before the end of the fourth quarter.

Ethereum and Cardano likely to coexist – Weiss Rating

Cardano’s PoS is set to go live in a few days while Ethereum 2.0 launch is delayed. Juan M. Villaverde, an expert from Weiss Crypto Ratings, Cardano could emerge as the biggest competitor for Ethereum. Referring to the contribution Cardano has already made to the crypto industry, Villaverde said:

They already are. They’ve done more work than most other crypto companies, and that includes even Bitcoin. They have formalized a lot of the science that’s behind crypto, blockchain. They’re the first ones who, before doing Proof of Stake, they actually did some research to prove whether or not Proof of Stake actually makes sense.

On whether Cardano had the muscle to topple Ethereum as the go-to smart contract platform, Villaverde said “I think they are going to coexist.” He added, “I don’t think Ethereum is going away. I don’t think Cardano is going away.”

Interest in Ethereum outpacing Bitcoin

Investor interest in digital assets has continued to grow since the beginning of 2020 mainly due to the stimulus packages from central banks across the world as a way of cushioning the economies from the shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although Bitcoin is up 30% this year, interest is shifting to smaller coins as seen in the last few weeks.

The largest altcoin, Ethereum has nearly doubled in value this year. Moreover, the number of active Ether addresses recently hit an all-time high. The first six months of the year saw Ethereum's active address grow by 118% while Bitcoin’s address grew by 49%. According to the CEO of data analysis platform Messari, Ryan Selkis:

There's a lot of demand for smart contract platforms that scale, so there's a big opening in the market right now with Ethereum 2.0 delayed, [processing] prices high, and well-funded competitors launching imminently.

Ethereum technical analysis

Ethereum price upside is still capped by a long term descending trendline amid fresh losses that commenced on Thursday. The push to rise to $250 in the first week of July hit a wall at $245. ETH/USD currently holds above $230 support while trading at $232. The immediate upside is limited by the 50% Fibonacci. In spite of the retreat, Ether is still holding above the 50 SMA in the weekly timeframe.

From a technical perspective, Ethereum would likely spend the weekend session in consolidation. Volatility is at the lowest while the MACD is horizontal above the mean line. Besides, the Elliot Wave Oscillator’s bearish session since the beginning of July suggests that sellers are in control and likely to remain the driver’s seat a while longer.

ETH/USD weekly chart