Ether maintains price above $3,300, eyes breakout to $3,500

Key takeaways

• ETH has maintained its price above $3,300 despite losing less than 1% of its value.
• The leading altcoin could rally higher in the near term amid growing institutional demand.

ETH stays above $3,300 despite market pullback

ETH, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has lost less than 1% of its value in the last 24 hours and is now trading above $3,300 per coin.

This performance comes despite growing institutional demand for Ethereum products. According to data obtained from SoSoValue, Ether-linked funds saw steady demand. Spot ether ETFs recorded $175 million in net inflows on Wednesday, led by BlackRock’s ETHA and Grayscale products, extending a gradual recovery in flows after a quiet December.

The market pullback was primarily caused by the U.S. Senate Banking Committee (SBC) pushing back on discussing the crypto market-structure bill after Coinbase withdrew support for the latest draft.

The committee Chairman, Tim Scott, announced in an official statement that bipartisan leaders, alongside the crypto and financial sectors, are continuing to work on the draft.

The postponement comes after Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, suddenly opposed the way, stating that it is better to have no bill than a bad one. 

Armstrong pointed out that the bill kills stablecoin rewards, erodes the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) authority, imposes DeFi prohibitions that violate privacy rights, and imposes a de facto ban on tokenized equities.

ETH eyes a breakout to $3,500

The ETH/USD 4-hour chart remains bullish despite the current market pullback. ETH is trading above $3,300 as the bulls defend the support level at $3,288. 

The MACD indicator on the 4-hour chart remains above the signal line, with green histogram bars above the zero line, expanding in support of the bullish thesis.

The RSI of 67 shows that buyers remain in control, with the bulls breaking above the immediate 200-day EMA resistance at $3,339. A daily candle close above this level could see ETH surge towards the resistance zone at $3,447, tested on December 10.

However, failure to overcome this resistance level could see ETH retracing towards the $3,000 psychological region.