Top 3 Trending Coins: ETH Holds Above $1,600 Despite Ugly US GDP Figures, UNI & BCH Surge

Key Points

• Ethereum is holding above $1,600 despite ugly US GDP numbers confirming a recession, with bulls still eyeing $1,700.
• A majority of fintech experts partaking in a survey earlier this month think the Ethereum merge will positively impact price.
• Uniswap and Bitcoin Cash are amongst the best performing top 50 cryptocurrencies on Thursday.

Ethereum Holds Above $1,600 Despite Awful US GDP Figures

ETH, the native token that powers the Ethereum blockchain, was last changing hands just above the $1,600 level and only very slightly in the red on the day, despite the release of ugly US GDP growth figures for Q2 that confirm the US was in a so-called “technical recession” in H1 2022. The downbeat data, which showed that the US economy contracted at an annualized pace of 0.9% in Q2 after shrinking at a pace of 1.6% in Q1, has triggered a classic risk-off response in markets.

US bond yields are sharply down amid demand for the safe-haven asset and on bets that the Fed will tighten less aggressively. The yen and gold have also been performing well, while stocks have been knocked a little, which is weighing on crypto. Still, both highly risk-sensitive asset classes are higher in wake of Wednesday’s dovish 75 bps rate hike from the Fed. Indeed, ETH still trades 19% up versus earlier weekly lows and is only 3.0% lower versus the monthly highs it hit earlier in the session.

Some analysts think that bad data may support speculative risk assets like tech stocks and crypto in the months ahead, if it dissuades the Fed from raising interest rates so aggressively in the latter part of 2022 and into 2023. As a result, ETH bulls will be keeping their sights set on resistance in the $1,700 area. A break above here could open the door to a run higher towards the $2,000 level and resistance in the mid-$2,100s just above it.

Ethereum Merge Not Yet “Priced In”, Says Vitalik Buterin

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said in an interview at last week’s Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) in Paris that after the Ethereum blockchain transitions to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) from Proof-of-Work (PoW) later this year, “morale is going to go way up”. Buterin added that the so-called “Merge” isn’t yet “priced in”, as it hasn’t happened yet, and that it needs to take place on schedule.

In Merge relevant news, Ethereum developers implemented their tenth so-called “shadow fork” of the blockchain’s mainnet on Tuesday and reported no significant glitches. A shadow fork is where developers copy data from the mainnet onto a test environment to run experiments.

Ethereum will use this shadow fork to test releases similar to those that be used in the Goerli merge on 10 August, Ethereum developer Parithosh Jayanthi told CoinDesk. The merge of the Goerli testnet to PoS from PoW will be Ethereum’s last trial run before the merge of its mainnet in September.

Analysts framed the latest shadow fork success as another small step towards a successful mainnet merge. Pre-merge Fear Of Mission Out (FOMO) has been touted as one of the reasons why Ethereum has been an outperforming cryptocurrency in recent weeks. Versus 30 days ago, ETH is around 35% higher, according to CoinMarketCap.

Ethereum “Merge” To Have a Positive Impact on Price, According to Finder.com

In a quarterly survey of 53 fintech experts conducted by finder.com and released earlier this month, an overwhelming majority (78%) said they thought Ethereum’s so-called “Merge” would have a positive impact on its price. However, one of the experts, Elbaite’s cofounder and CEO Mortaza Tollo, warned that its “hard to predict a short-term price after The Merge, there might be a case of buy the rumor, sell the news, so in the lead-up to The Merge prices might rise by up to 25% but decline shortly after”.

In answer to the question as to whether now is the time to buy, hold or sell Ethereum, the panel was fairly evenly split between buy (43%) and hold (41%), with only 16% recommending to sell. One expert, the founder and chairman of CoinFlip Daniel Polotsky, argued that ETH is currently selling for a discount given the ongoing bear market.

“Bitcoin, while still being a risk asset in the eyes of the general population, is still the most trusted blockchain among all cryptocurrencies… That means that people will flock to it over other, more speculative blockchains in times of unrest,” he explained. “What this means is that more speculative, growth-oriented blockchains like Ethereum will be on a steeper discount during the bear market, presenting potential buying opportunities for investors.”

In finder.com’s July survey, the 53 experts also gave their new Ethereum price forecasts for the end of 2022, 2025 and 2030. The mean forecast for the year-end is for ETH to hit $1,711, then to rally to $5,739 by 2025, before moving above $14,400 by 2030.

Meanwhile, experts at CoinPedia are bullish in their ETH forecasts. They see the cryptocurrency hitting $2,142.3 by the year’s end. In a bullish scenario where the network sees a reduction in congestion and gas fees following developments work, which they think could lead to new buyers and projects arriving, ETH could even end the year as high as $2,474. In a bearish scenario where the Merge doesn’t go so smoothly, ETH might only reach $1,785.

That compares to a much more bearish outlook amongst CoinMarketCap website users. Of the 291 that have submitted a forecast as to where they see Ethereum ending 2022, the mean forecast is for it to fall over 20% from current levels back to around $1,280.

Uniswap

Having gained 23% in the last 24 hours according to CoinMarketCap, Uniswap is the best performing cryptocurrency in the top 50. Price action on Thursday could be particularly significant as, in recent trade, the cryptocurrency has broken above its 200-Day Moving Average (at $8.38) for the first time since November 2021. A clean break above the 200DMA could open the door to a run higher towards the $10 level and resistance above that around $12.

Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin Cash, meanwhile, is another strong performer. According to CoinMarketCap, the Bitcoin forked cryptocurrency is up close to 20% in the last 24 hours. However, it does seem to have run into resistance in the form of its 12 May lows around $150 per token. BCH has since dipped back from earlier session highs to the $143 area. It is still up over 25% versus earlier weekly highs.