Ethereum Classic (ETC) price has underperformed other cryptocurrencies in the past few months even after the developers launched the spiral upgrade. The ETC coin was trading at $27 on Wednesday, where it has been at in the past few weeks. This price is about 16.6% below its highest point this year, meaning that it has moved into a correction phase.
Latest Ethereum Classic news
Ethereum Classic, unlike other newer blockchain networks like Sui and Sei, rarely makes headlines. The only recent news happened on January 31st when the developers activated the spiral hard fork, which brought it into Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) standards. As a result, it enabled faster contract development and migration.
The spiral hard fork did not lead to major movements of Ethereum Classic price. This is likely because the network has long struggled to attract developers in its ecosystem even though it uses Ethereum’s original code.
A closer look at its Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ecosystem shows that nothing much is happening there. It has a TVL of just $611k and $23k in stablecoin market cap. The most notable players in Ethereum Classic’s ecosystem are HebeSwap, ETCswap, Soy Finance, and Fusion DEX.
Nothing much is happening in these networks. HebeSwap has $600k in its ecosystem while the other three have less than $2k each. In contrast, newer blockchain projects like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Sui have all attracted billions of dollars in inflows.
Ethereum Classic also has little or no market share in other industries like Non-Fungible Token (NFT), gaming, and the metaverse.
Ethereum surged to $3,000
A likely catalyst for ETC price will be the fact that the Ethereum price is in a strong uptrend. It jumped to over $3,000 for the first time in two years on Tuesday. This was an important development since ETH price dropped to below $1,000 after the collapse of FTX. As such, it has jumped by more than 200%, making it one of the best performers in the crypto industry.
Ethereum price jumped as investors reacted to the rising optimism that the SEC will eventually approve spot ETH ETFs in the coming months. Several companies like Blackrock, VanEck, and Franklin Templeton have applied for these funds.
An Ethereum ETF approval will likely do what Bitcoin ETFs have done recently as inflows from institutional investors have jumped. The iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) has added over $6 billion in assets and the trend is set to accelerate. It is followed closely by Fidelity’s ETF which has added over $4 billion.
Still, there are concerns about whether the SEC will approve an Ethereum ETF because of its staking features. The SEC sees Ethereum as an unregulated asset. For example, Gary Gensler has raised questions about how the staking yield is calculated. In most cases, a big surge in ETH price leads to more Ethereum Classic price gains.
Ethereum Classic price forecast
The 4H chart shows that the ETC price has moved upwards gradually in the past few weeks. In this period, it has jumped from a low of $21.75 on January 23rd to over $26 today. Along the way, it has formed an ascending channel and is now at its middle. The coin remains slightly above the 50-period moving average.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) has moved above the neutral point at 50 while the Stochastic Oscillator is also in the middle. Volume has remained under pressure lately. Therefore, a contrarian case for Ethereum Classic can be made as ETH jumps. A bullish breakout will likely see it retest the YTD high of $32.38.
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