The second largest cryptocurrency in the market, Ethereum, opened this week at $1,637. Yesterday it reached a maximum value of 1,635.64 dollars and a minimum value of 1,609.35 dollars. The ETH/USD pair is trading $1,625.85, down 0.84% in 24 hours. Furthermore, the price has increased by almost 5% in a week.
Increased number of active Ethereum addresses
The number of Ethereum addresses with a balance greater than zero is steadily increasing. Ethereum hit a new all-time high of 92.5 million addresses this week, according to data from Glassnode.
The number of unique addresses such as recipient or sender is represented by the active addresses. Includes only those who have completed a successful transaction.
Recently, a significant increase in the number of active addresses has been observed on Ethereum. These new highs in Ethereum network activity and usage could help drive the price of ETH/USD higher.
Developer Concerns Over Shanghai Update
The Shanghai Upgrade, the next major scheduled blockchain upgrade, will take place in March 2023. The upgrade will facilitate the phasing out of ETH staking from the Beacon Chain.
Everything points to Shanghai being ready for launch in March. However, a minority of Ethereum developers have recently expressed concern about the rushed rollout of the update.
They said it was rolled out too quickly to avoid a negative public backlash and at the expense of technology investments, the absence of which could prove detrimental to the network in the long run.
Not Zoltua leading developer of Ethereum, and about 30 developers fear that the recent decision to forgo a technical change on Shanghai could expose Ethereum to excessive technological difficulties with unknown long-term consequences.
On Jan. 19, Zoltu expressed concern during a developer meeting, saying Ethereum’s long-term viability will need to do so. The news is not favorable for the ETH/USD price.
Deploying smart contracts on Ethereum
On January 17, the blockchain software development company Alchemy released its Q4 2022 Web3 Development Report. The report claims that the number of smart contracts running on the Ethereum mainnet increased by 300% in 2022.
Additionally, the increase in smart contracts executed on Ethereum nearly mirrored the growth rate seen in 2021, despite the weak market in 2022. As of the end of Q4 2022, 4.6 million smart contracts were active on the Ethereum blockchain , according to the analysis.
Additionally, the number of smart contracts deployed on Ethereum’s Goerli test network increased by 187% in the last three months of 2022 and by a whopping 721% year-over-year, reaching an all-time high of 2.7 million.
This indicates that other decentralized applications (dapps) may soon hit the market. Thus, the rise of smart contracts drives up the price of ETH/USD.
Price predictions for Ethereum
In the past 24 hours, the price of Ethereum was $1,625, with a trading volume of $8 billion. ETH/USD ran into significant resistance near $1,680 and declined to find support at $1,610.
In the 4-hour period, the ETH/USD pair has established an ascending channel, indicating the possibility of ETH’s uptrend continuing.
On the upside, increased demand could cut Ethereum’s resistance at $1,680 and push the price towards $1,750. On the downside, a breakout of $1,600 could extend the selling trend to $1,560.
In addition to Ethereum, the Meta Masters Guild presale has huge upside potential.
Guild of Metamasters (MEMAG)
In just a few days, the Meta Masters Guild pre-sale went from $200,000 to a whopping $550,000. This significant growth means investors appear confident in the company’s potential to thrive and generate profits in the future.
Meta Masters Guild will release its first mobile game in the third quarter of 2023. The MEMAG network has been operating for some time and allows users to create and manage their own tokens and transact on the open market. Games in which participants can earn prizes are currently in development, as well as games based on Web3, a technology compatible with Ethereum.
Investing in MEMAG currently begins with the purchase of $10 worth of MEMAG tokens. You will receive one cent token if you participate in the pre-sale; early investors will have a shortened sale window to participate.