Ethereum Price Analysis - Immediate upside likely

Ethereum (ETH) now has a US$29billion market capitalization, second only to Bitcoin’s US$69 billion. ETH is also the second highest trading digital cryptocurrency or asset by volume, below Bitcoin and above Ripple.

ETH has had a wild ride this month, dropping from all-time highs around US$400 to US$200. The cryptocurrency has since rallied and currently trades around US$300Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum is not deflationary and currently has no maximum total. In order to slow inflationary pressures, the Ethereum developers have programmed specific changes in difficulty, while trying to avoid any major disruption in the network itself.

With the upcoming Metropolis hard fork, Ethereum will begin switching from a pure Proof of Work consensus protocol to a hybrid Proof of Work and Proof of Stake protocol, with Casper Stage 1. At the same time, there have been changes to the difficulty adjustment scheme so that each difficulty increase occurs exponentially.