Ethereum reverses weekend gains as new hard fork looms large

ETH/USD slides below $130.00 amid the resumed sell-off on the market.
Ethereum team gets ready for Muir Glacier update.

Tanya Abrosimova Independent Analyst

Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest digital asset with the current market value of $14 billion, has reversed the best part of its weekend gains to trade at $128.50 at the time of writing. ETH/USD has lost over 3% in recent 24 hours and stayed unchanged since the beginning of the day.

Another day, another fork

On January 2, the Ethereum team will activate another hard fork to delay the so-called difficulty bomb. The update called Muir Glacier will be launched on block 9,200,000, and as a result, the bomb will not explode for another 4 million blocks.

The difficulty bomb is a sort of a motivation tool for Ethereum ecosystem participants to perform the transition to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) algorithm.

ETH/USD: technical picture

ETH/USD hit the low at $126.64 on Monday and regained some ground by press time; however, the further recovery seems to be limited by $129.00 and SMA50 (Simple Moving Average) 4-hour at $129.30. Once it is out of the way, the upside is likely to gain traction with the next focus on psychological $130.00. The next resistance is located on the approach to $137.50. This area is reinforced by SMA100 4-hour. Notably, from the longer-term perspective, the crucial resistance is created by SMA50 daily at $156.00.

On the downside, the local support is created by $125.00. This area is reinforced by the lower line of 4-hour Bollinger Band, which means it has the potential to slow down the sell-off at least temporary. The next support comes at psychological $120.00.