Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD bulls face a brick wall on approach to $232.00

• Ethereum-based DEXs show a strong increase of trading volumes.
• ETH/USD is range-bound after a short-lived recovery attempt.

An aggregate trading volume registered on the Ethereum-based decentralized exchanges (DEX) hit the highest monthly figure on record in February 2020, according to the statistics provided by Dune Analytics. DEXs processed over  $372M in trading volume, which is 62% higher from January 2020. The previous all-time high of  $358 million was hit in July 2019. 

Notably, the growth of the trading volume is correlated with the ETH price increase. In February 2020, ETH/USD has gained 15%. It is nearly 73% higher from the beginning of the year. 

February was an all-time high month for DEXs on @ethereum with $372 million traded! Slightly beating the previous record from November. We can also see that DEX volumes are highly correlated with ETH price.

In the recent 24 hours, DEXs logged trades worth over $16 million, which is a tiny fraction of the total cryptocurrency market trading volume ($247 billion at the time of writing). However, the figure has been climbing steadily with the trailing 7-days growth of 21%.

ETH/USD: Technical picture

ETH/USD bottomed at $212,38 on Sunday, March 01, and recovered to $221.30 by press time. The second-largest digital coin has gained 1.7% since the beginning of the day and stayed mostly unchanged on a day-to-day basis. Notably, Ethereums’daily trading volumes has settled at $17 billion, which is in line with the recent figures. 

From the technical point of view, ETH/USD needs to regain ground above $230.00 and $232 for the upside to gain traction. The later barrier is created by a combination of SMA200 4-hour and the upper boundary of 4-hour Bollinger Band. Also, it is the upper line of the recent consolidation channel. Once it is out of the way, the upside is likely to gain traction with the next focus on $239.00-$240.00, which includes SMA50 4-hour.

On the downside, a sell-off below $220.00 will increase the immediate bearish pressure and allow for a retest of the recent low ($212). If it is broken, $210 (February 27 low) and psychological $200 will come into view. 

ETH/USD 4-hour chart