ETH/USD struggles to recover from $200 as Ethereum dev team postpones Constantinopole update

ETH/USD is changing hands at $205.16, off the early Asian low registered at $203.54. The second largest coin by market value is down 0.84% since this time on Sunday and unchanged since the beginning of the day.

Constantinople delayed till 2019

Constantinople won't be implemented until early 2019. Ethereum developers decided to delay the roll-out of the second part of Metropolis hard fork, following the discussions on the regular video call meeting. Initially, Constantinople was scheduled to be deployed on the mainnet in November; however, the developers decided to hold off on the plans due to several bugs revealed during the testing period on Ropsten network.

“I still think that we are in too much of a hurry. We need to pause and understand what is happening,” Afri Shedon, developer of Parity, explained during the conference video call.
Meanwhile, the security lead at the Ethereum Foundation Martin HolstSwende added that developers will have time to implement ProgPow code that is to counter ASIC miners in Constantinople.

ETH/USD, the technical picture

ETH/USD stays above critical $200, but failure to develop the upside momentum darkens the short-term technical picture. At this stage it is hard to predict the direction of the breakthrough as both RSI and Momentum indicators are flat; however, a sustainable movement above $207.00 handle will strengthen the bulls' position. This area has capped the recovery since Saturday and serves as a support before the collapse to the recent low of $200.32.

On the downside, the local support comes at $203.54, created by the Asian low. It is followed by psychological $200. A sustainable movement below this level will trigger more sell-off towards $186 (October 11 low).

ETH/USD, 4-hour chart