Ethereum Constantinople hard fork set for January 2019:  ETH/USD stalls below $100

The Ethereum development team has been working tirelessly to see the network get its next upgrade. The developers have come to an agreement that the Constantinopleupgrade, which will be in form of a hard fork will take place at block 7,080,000. At the time of writing, the network is at block 6.87 million. This place the hard fork around the third week of January 2019.

The upgrade had been scheduled to take place in October this year. However, it was called off following the failure to deploy on the network’s testnet. One of the developers, Afri Sgchoedon later told the community not to expect an upgrade in 2018.

The Constantinopleupgrade is expected to bring down the miners’ per reward from 3 ETH to 2 ETH. This is likely to cause jitters in the community especially for the miners and the investors. The issue of lowering the reward dies not seat well with the miners considering that Ethereum has declined from $1,400 to the current price roughly above $90.00. People believe that discussions will increasing regarding the hard fork as the new year comes. Besides, it is possible that the network could split if disagreements get out of hand.

Ethereum price technical picture

Ethereum dropped below to $80.00 towards the end of last week. A recovery, staged over the weekend stalled short of $100. The price is currently locked within a range with resistance at $100 (50 SMA) and the range support at $80 (2018 low). ETH/USD made overcame the bearish trendline resistance but due to the selling pressure in the market, the momentum fizzled out moment after. At present, it is trading at $92 and immediately supported at $90. If Ethereum rebounds above $100, it will face more hurdles at the 100 SMA currently at $108.39.

ETH/USD 240' chart