Ethereum price analysis: ETH/USD not ready for a move above $140.00

Ethereum, the second-largest digital asset with the current market value of $15.2 billion, hit the intraday high at $139.77. By press time, the coin retreated to $139.10, though it is still 2% higher from this time on Sunday, and 2.7% higher from the beginning of the day. Ethereum is moving ins sync with the market as the whole block of major cryptocurrencies has been recovering amid growing tensions on the global markets.

Muir Glacier has its toll

Ethereum developers rolled out Muir Glacier hard fork on Ethereum blockchain to delay the difficulty bomb by another 4 million blocks. As the mining difficulty decreased, the average time required to discover a block, dropped by almost 25% after the update. According to the data, provided by Etherscan, the block time decreased from 17.16 seconds on January 1 to 12.96 on January 4. As a result, miners were able to discover more blocks: the daily output of new ETH blocks increased by 32%, while miners remunerations. increased by over 31% after the update. 

ETH/USD: technical picture

From the longer-term perspective, we will need to see a sustainable move above $140.00 for the upside to gain traction. The next resistance is created by SMA50 (Simple Moving Average) daily on approach to $142.00. If it is cleared, psychological $150.00 will come into focus. Notably, the last time ETH/USD traded above SMA50 daily in the middle of November, which makes it all the more important for the long-term outlook. The next barrier comes at $153.00, which is the highest level of December 2019.

On the downside, local support is created by the upper line of the daily Bollinger Band at $137.80. The price may retreat to this area within the technical correction. However, once it is cleared, the downside is likely to gain traction with the next focus on $133.00. This support is created by a confluence of SMA5 daily and SMA100 1-hour. The critical barrier awaits us on approach to $130.00, reinforced by the middle line of the daily Bollinger Band. If it is broken, the sell-off will intensify and the upside momentum will be negated.

ETH/USD daily chart