ARK Invest has announced the rising Ethereum (ETH) outlook. He also said that crypto markets are returning to the risky environment. Analyst Michaël van de Poppe looks at what’s in store for the leading altcoin up until Merge.
ARK Invest unveils rising Ethereum outlook
An analyst at investment management firm ARK Invest notes that Ethereum (ETH) may start to gather more bullish momentum as crypto markets turn into a risky environment. After months of bearish price action, ARK analyst Frank Downing says the dust has settled on crypto markets:
I think we saw something interesting last month. So when the markets were down and we were in this kind of capitulation cycle, you had assets on the riskier end of the spectrum. That’s why ETH and assets are built on top of ETH compared to Bitcoin, they are really hard to sell. Not necessarily trading on the fundamentals, but the markets are completely risk-averse. It’s only in the second half of July that I think it’s starting to turn. We’ve seen the market gradually start to trade on more fundamentals on margins.
Bullish situation for altcoin centers around Merge
A risk-free environment often refers to a period in which riskier assets such as crypto and equities are sold in favor of safe-haven assets such as the US dollar. Downing then concentrates the bullish situation for Ethereum around Merge. In this context, he makes the following statement:
For the case of ETH, the progress made around these mostly transitions was related to The Merge. This has been expected in the more than seven years since the network launched. We are now closer to this transition than ever before. The latest test-net has increased the belief that Merge will happen. Compared to PoW, PoS has caused great interest in ETH. And so we saw that the ETH/BTC pair performed better. This was a difference from the risk-free period we saw. Hence, the market has reverted to risk taking for such assets.
According to Downing, the strength of Ethereum is a net positive for the long-term health of the digital asset space. The analyst makes the following assessment:
This is something we want to see. There is a bullish trend in ETH versus Bitcoin as a sign of the growing strength of crypto as a whole. If you look at what we classify as financial and internet revolutions compared to the monetary revolution embodied by Bitcoin, that represents roughly 50% of the crypto market. ETH is the dominant asset in this bucket. So seeing this strength is clear bullish for crypto as a whole.
What are Michaël van de Poppe’s ETH predictions?
Popular crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe is planning a bullish scenario for Ethereum amid the hype surrounding the incoming upgrade of the smart contract platform. The crypto strategist says he believes Ethereum’s current pullback from August’s high of $2,000 is likely to end:
I’m looking at such a scenario on Ethereum. The end of the correction is relatively soon, with the critical level near $1,350. Merge hype, which is starting to get fired in the coming weeks, is pulling the markets up. If the block around $1,300-1,350 is lost, then $1,000 will follow.
Merge, which will switch Ethereum from PoW to PoS, will take place in mid-September, as you can follow on Kriptokoin.com. At the time of writing, ETH is changing hands at $1,540, up 3.74% on the day. The analyst is also looking at Ethereum against Bitcoin (ETH/BTC). He says the pair needs to stay above the immediate support level to increase the chances of a rebound:
The daily order block still continues for Ethereum. This is great. I would like to see 0.071-0.0725 BTC ($1,402 – $1,432) stay above it. Because then it still means a regular correction in an uptrend. In this case, it is possible to continue to 0.10 BTC ($1,975).
At the time of writing, the ETH/BTC pair is trading at 0.073 BTC ($1,441), which is stable for the day. As for Bitcoin, Van de Poppe says he doesn’t see BTC correcting up to $14,000:
The potential scenario exists for Bitcoin as we face a weekly test of support levels. Testing the $19,000 region seems inevitable. The question is whether we’re going to sweep bottoms or just create a higher bottom. Everyone is waiting for $14,000. Not likely.