Bitcoin's consolidation would allow Ethereum to chart a breakout from the ascending channel in the exchange against USDT
Over the past week, altcoin prices have seen a significant drop, and investors with little exposure to Bitcoin ( BTC ) have seen the value of their wallets take a hit.
Initially, the price of Ether ( ETH ) followed Bitcoin higher as the major crypto asset broke the 12,000$ resistance. However, as BTC continues its rise, Ether struggles to turn 400$ into support.
Ether's loss of momentum and the correction in altcoins prompted several crypto traders to tweet that the alt-season is over, citing the bearish price action in the ETH / BTC exchange as proof.
Looking at the weekly chart of ETH / BTC, traders will notice that the pair is on the verge of falling below the rising trend line and the high volume VPVR node located at 0.027294 sat.
Losing this level opens the door for a further decline first towards 0.024519 sat and then towards annual lows around 0.0160 sat.
On the daily chart, we can see that losing support at 0.032385 sat pushed the Ether price into the VPVR gap between 0.032385 and 0.029536 sat.
The collapse looks set to continue well above the 0.029536 sat level, despite the apparent recovery from the overbought zone in the RSI seen yesterday. The signal line and MACD are still rapidly declining, and the absence of strong buying volume worsens the situation in the short term.
If the price of Bitcoin enters a consolidation phase for the next few days, the ETH / BTC exchange could recover some of the lost ground, but at the moment this scenario seems unlikely.
There is hope in the ETH / USDT exchange
The ETH / USDT has a rather different picture, with new rising lows on the daily chart and the price contained in the support and resistance lines of the ascending channel.
The support channel aligns with the 100-day moving average, and once the support level reaches 400$, Ether will face 405$ and 417$ as the next hurdle.
The price trend within ascending channels is quite simple to monitor and the 4-hour chart indicates that the MACD is approaching the signal line as the sell decreases and the RSI exceeds 45.
In the short term, a move towards the mid-range of the channel at 400$ seems likely, but traders still expect this level to be strong resistance. A bullish breakout of the ascending channel (430$) will allow Ether to look to 468$.
If the price of Ether dips below the 100-day MA and exits the downward-directed ascending channel, the closest support levels are 353$, 330$ and 315$. Missing these levels, traders may be looking for a steeper contraction to 248$.
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