Ethereum Price Gains Amid Cautious Long-Term Outlook and RISC-V Proposal

Ethereum sees a short-term price increase driven by heightened trading volume, but long-term projections remain cautious. Analysts suggest this may be a relief rally rather than a definitive uptrend. Vitalik Buterin’s proposal to replace the Ethereum Virtual Machine with RISC-V could revolutionise ETH’s cost efficiency and scalability while ensuring compatibility with existing systems.

Ethereum (ETH) is currently valued at $1,643.48, reflecting a 3.26% increase over the last 24 hours. Notably, trading volume surged by 51.45%, amounting to $11.19 billion, highlighting renewed investor interest. Despite this positive short-term shift, Ethereum’s weekly change remains modest at only 0.53%.

The price of ETH encountered resistance at $1,635 following a prolonged consolidation phase. Although intraday gains suggest strength, broader market trends lean towards a negative outlook. Indicators such as the Relative Strength Index (RSI) reveal overbought conditions on shorter timeframes, while the MACD indicates signs of exhaustion. Analysts advise caution, considering this upward movement as more of a relief bounce rather than a definitive reversal.

Traders, particularly scalpers, are eyeing two potential strategies: initiating a short position at the existing resistance level or entering a long position upon confirmation of a breakout at $1,680. Key support levels to monitor include $1,600 and $1,530.

Market analysts at Changelly have projected that Ethereum’s price will fluctuate throughout 2025. They anticipate an average price of $2,993.84, with the highest reaching $2,430.91 and a minimum of $1,867.98. For April 2025, forecasts are even more cautious, expecting a range between $1,600.28 and $1,979.26. These predictions suggest a potential ROI decline from -38.1% to -49.6%, reflecting broader economic influences that may dampen ETH’s short to mid-term growth prospects.

In a crucial architectural proposal, co-founder Vitalik Buterin suggests replacing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with a royalty-free, open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture. He shared these ideas on the Ethereum Magicians forum, asserting that this shift could drastically reduce on-chain execution costs by up to 100 times for specific applications.

Buterin’s proposal aligns with Ethereum’s roadmap for enhanced scalability and modularity while ensuring backward compatibility. This means existing smart contracts will continue functioning through binary support and interpreters. The RISC-V architecture is not entirely new; similar initiatives have been explored in blockchain, notably in Polkadot’s PolkaVM back in 2023. If realised, this plan could mark a significant transition for ETH, aligning its infrastructure with open computing standards and paving the way for increased efficiency and adoption.