Ethereum Price Forecast: Hackers resume interest in ETH as it eyes 16% rally

Ethereum price today: $2,630

• Ethereum saw mixed sentiments on Thursday after hackers of crypto exchanges Coinbase and Cetus engaged in opposite ETH trading activity.
• While the Coinbase attacker dumped ETH, the Cetus hacker accumulated it.
• ETH could rally over 16% if it overcomes the resistance levels of a developing ascending triangle pattern on the 8-hour chart.

Ethereum (ETH) is up 5% on Thursday as lingering bullish sentiments from Bitcoin's (BTC) recent all-time high lifted the crypto market. Despite the recent gains, ETH faced mixed sentiment after hackers of crypto exchanges Coinbase and Cetus began leveraging it to swap stolen funds.

Ethereum continues to attract hackers

Ethereum is seeing mixed sentiments after two hackers engaged in opposite ETH trading activity within the past 24 hours.

The hacker who leveraged social engineering scams to steal over $300 million from Coinbase users exchanged 26,762 ETH for $68.25 million, according to data posted by on-chain wallet tracker Lookonchain.

However, the hacker of the Cetus decentralized exchange (DEX) liquidity pool followed an opposite trajectory, converting the stolen funds to USDC and performing cross-chain transactions to buy ETH. The Cetus hacker has accumulated 21,938 ETH at an average price of $2,658 per ETH.

The hackers' activity marks the continuation of a trend where bad actors prefer to leverage ETH to swap stolen funds due to its high censorship resistance standards. For example, the crypto exchange Bybit hack in February saw hackers stealing nearly $1.6 billion worth of ETH.

https://x.com/WazzCrypto/status/1925610336016572683

The increased usage of ETH in such hackers' related transactions could negatively affect its perception, especially among traditional investors.

Meanwhile, US spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw a modest net inflow of $600,000 on Wednesday, per Farside Investors' data. As a result, the products have stretched their inflow streak to four consecutive days, with most of the buying activity coming from BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust, which has seen $83.6 million in inflows in the past three trading days.

Ethereum Price Forecast: ETH eyes 16% rally following developing ascending triangle pattern

Ethereum saw $75.97 million in futures liquidations in the past 24 hours, per Coinglass data. The total amount of liquidated long and short positions is $23.95 million and $52.03 million, respectively.

ETH has been consolidating after a bullish breakout between May 7 and 13, with its trading volume at moderate levels. The top altcoin is forming an ascending triangle on the 8-hour chart, which is a bullish continuation pattern.

If ETH leaps above the triangle's short-term resistance around $2,680 - $2,750, it could test the critical resistance near $2,850. A firm move above $2,850 could see ETH pull off a 16% rally to reclaim the $3,000 psychological and $3,250 key levels.

ETH/USDT 8-hour chart

The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) aligns with the bullish outlook as it is on the verge of crossing above its moving average line, while its histogram bars are about to flip positive. A strong crossover indicates a potential buy signal.

Meanwhile, the Stochastic Oscillator is in the overbought region, indicating strong bullish momentum. However, such overbought conditions also strengthen the chances of a pullback.

If a pullback occurs at the horizontal line resistance levels, the ascending triangle's rising trendline and $2,530 level could provide short-term support. The 50-period Simple Moving Average (SMA) also serves as a dynamic support level below the triangle.

If ETH falls below these levels, it could extend the decline to test the support near the $2,260 - $2,100 range.