Ethereum (ETH) price analysis: ETH/USD on retreat after Sunday’s growth

• ETH/USD has been rangebound with bearish bias after a steady growth on the weekend.
• The nearest strong resistance for the coin is seen at $278.

Ethereum (ETH) hit $279 on Sunday only to retread below $270 by the time of writing. The second largest cryptocurrency with the current market capitalization of $28.7 billion has lost nearly 1% of its value in recent 24 hours and stayed unchanged since the beginning of Monday. An average daily trading volume for ETH is registered at $9.7 billion, which is much higher from the long-term figures.

Looking technically, ETH/USD recovery is capped by the upper boundary of 1-day Bollinger Band (currently, at $278.73). This barrier stopped the upside on Sunday and triggered the downside correction. Once it is cleared, the bullish trend is likely to gain traction with the next focus on $280.00 and $284 (the upper boundary of 1-week Bollinger Band) and the recent high of $288. That’s where some profit taking on speculative longs may trigger the downside correction before another bullish leg towards $300.

On the downside, the coin is now supported by $256. This barrier is created by the middle line of the 1-day Bollinger Band and closely followed by a series of strong technical levels clustered around $254. They include SMA100 (Simple Moving Average), SMA200 and SMA50 on a 4-hour timeframe. Once it is cleared, the sell-off may be extended towards $252.00 (lower boundary of 4-hour Bollinger Band) A sustainable move below this handle will trigger more selling and push the price down to $230 (SMA50 - Simple Moving Average, daily chart).

ETH/USD, 1-day chart