Ethereum Price Surges Past $1,600 Amid Whale Withdrawal and Proposed Changes

Ethereum (ETH) has crossed the $1,600 mark with a 1.7% increase as a whale withdrew 1,897 ETH from Bitget. Vitalik Buterin proposed replacing the Ethereum Virtual Machine with RISC-V architecture to boost execution speeds significantly. Despite the rise in price, network metrics show declining usage with low transaction fees and activities moving to layer-2 solutions. Future price movements hinge on overcoming $1,650 resistance for potential upward trends.

Ethereum (ETH) is currently trading above the $1,600 threshold with a daily gain of approximately 1.7%. This increase comes amid significant activities from large investors, particularly a multi-million dollar proposal by co-founder Vitalik Buterin to enhance Ethereum’s scalability, and a recent whale withdrawal from the Bitget exchange.

The cryptocurrency has demonstrated resilience above the $1,500 support level, breaking through the $1,550 to $1,600 zone, which analysts interpret as entering a short-term positive phase. Technical analysis indicates that ETH has surpassed a bearish trend line, with notable resistance now at around $1,590 and a recorded high of $1,644. Stable trading has been observed above the 100-hourly Simple Moving Average, specifically above the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level.

Vitalik Buterin has put forth a revolutionary proposal to replace the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with the RISC-V instruction set architecture. This transformative strategy aims to significantly enhance the execution speed of Ethereum’s architecture, potentially increasing efficiency up to 100 times. The proposal seeks to address existing scalability challenges, leveraging zero-knowledge functions and simplifying the consensus layer.

In a notable development, a prominent whale withdrew 1,897 ETH (approximately $3 million) from the Bitget exchange, part of a broader pattern of accumulating 3,844 ETH since April 3. This transaction reflects a strong confidence among large investors in Ethereum’s future value and is expected to positively influence market conditions. Enhanced trading volumes have been observed following this significant withdrawal.

Despite the positive price movements, Ethereum’s network metrics reveal some concerns. For instance, blob fees from layer-2 solutions have hit a weekly low of 3.18 ETH, signalling reduced activity on the main Ethereum base layer as users migrate to cheaper transactions on layer-2 solutions. The average transaction fee has also decreased tremendously, now standing at around $0.16, representing the lowest average since 2020.

Traders remain vigilant, eyeing the $1,700 level as crucial resistance. A successful breakthrough above this number could propel ETH’s price further towards $1,720, and potentially up to $1,840 in the short term. Analysts also caution that failure to surpass the $1,650 resistance could lead to a correction, with initial support identified at approximately $1,620.