Ethereum Classic (ETC) price has a bullish catalyst in April

Ethereum Classic (ETC/USD) price drifted upwards on the first day of April as investors focus on the upcoming Shanghai upgrade. ETC jumped to a high of $21.54, the highest point since March 19 of this year. The coin has risen by ~30% from the lowest level in March.

Ethereum Shanghai upgrade

The biggest cryptocurrency news of March was the decision by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to warn Coinbase about its staking products. This warning came a month after the SEC settled with Kraken, a leading crypto exchange. The settlement saw the company end its staking solutions to Americans.

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Most importantly, SEC’s Gary Gensler warned about Ethereum’s staking products a few days after the merge happened in 2022. He warned that Ethereum had effectively became a financial security, meaning that it should be regulated.

Therefore, April will be an important month for Ethereum’s network since the network will go through its biggest upgrade after The Merge. The developers will unveil the Shanghai upgrade, which will unlock the tokens that users have staked.

In most cases, Ethereum Classic price tends to do well when there is a major development in the industry. For example, it was one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies before Ethereum merge, which joined the traditional network with the beacon chain. 

The idea is that developers could decide to move to Ethereum Classic if there is a major crackdown on Ethereum. There is some evidence that many Ethereum miners shifted to Ethereum Classic and Litecoin after the merge.

However, the challenge for Ethereum Classic is that its ecosystem is relatively smaller than other networks like Arbitrum and Optimism. Some of the top dApps in its ecosystem are TurbineSwap, GhostNFT, SoyFinance, and Fusion. These dApps have a minimal market share in their industries.

Ethereum Classic price prediction

The four-hour chart shows that the ETC price has been in a slow bullish trend in the past few days. It has moved above the ascending trendline shown in blue. The coin has also jumped above the 50-period moving average and the 50% Fibonacci Retracement level. At the same time, it has formed a small inverted head and shoulders pattern while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) moved above the neutral point.

Therefore, there is a likelihood that the coin will continue soaring in March as buyers target the key resistance point at $25, which is about 20% above the current level.