Ethereum (ETH), the world's second-largest crypto by market cap, has continued its strong price rally, moving past $1,750. ETH is up by 6% at the time of writing, changing hands at around $1,734 levels with a market cap of $211B.
Ethereum formed a base above the $1,600 level and started a significant increase by surpassing a few critical hurdles near the $1,650 and $1,675 levels. The price climbed 10% and even reached the $1,740 level. In addition, the bulls also pumped the price towards the $1,800 level. A new multi-week high was formed near $1,784. However, the price later retreated with a minor decline below the $1,750 level.
ETH price dropped below the 23.6% Fib retracement level, from the $1,602 swing low to the $1,784 high. However, it still sits above $1,700 and the 100 hourly simple moving average. A key bullish trend line is forming with support near $1,700 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. Significant resistance is at the $1,780 zone. A clear move above the $1,780 level could increase the price. The price may rise towards the $1,880 resistance zone in the stated case.
As per on-chain data provider Santiment, Ethereum also witnessed a strong surge in its address activity.
Ethereum had a big Thursday, soaring above $1,770 for the first time since June 10th. This spike was just two days after $ETH hinted at a big move following its #AllTimeHigh in address activity, breaking over 1 million for the first time in history.
It is estimated that around 1.06 million ETH addresses made transactions in a single day. This is a 48% increase from the previous record, but the team is still unsure what led to this massive spike in activity.
The transition of the Ethereum blockchain to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network has been a significant catalyst in the recent ETH price rally. Ethereum developers recently revealed that The Merge upgrade on the Ethereum mainnet shall happen around mid-September.
As a result, there's currently a massive optimism among ETH investors. While speaking to Bloomberg, Paul Veradittakit, a partner at Pantera Capital, said:
"The Ethereum merge will turn the protocol into a proof-of-stake chain and provide more utility for the token, changing the tokenomics, and providing excitement for further decentralization for Ethereum going forward."
Going forward, the global macro factors will likely play a more significant role in the ETH price rally. On Wednesday, the U.S. FED announced a 75 basis points rate hike to control the soaring inflation. Usually, every time the Fed's announcement brings volatility to the crypto markets. This time, it was different; it got massive price gains.