Ethereum price analysis: ETH/USD recovers to $470 as Ethereum developers propose to reduce block reward

• Ethereum recovers from recent lows.
• Block reward may be decreased together with difficulty increase.

Ethereum has recovered from the low of $43954, reached early on Monday, but it is still well below recent high. The second largest coin with a market value  registered at $4B have an average daily trading volume settled at $1.3B. It is mostly unchanged on a daily basis while growing volatility may trigger more extended recovery amid positive sentiments of a broader crypto market.

Ethereum has fallen victim airdrops of Chinese crypto exchange FCoin  and spam attacks, allegedly triggered by EOS bots. They resulted in a transaction fee  growth amid lower trading volumes. Apparently, Ethereum network is still experiencing negative consequences of those events.  

Meanwhile, Ethereum developers propose to reduce  block reward from 3 ETH to 2 ETH simultaneously with the  difficulty increase.  

“In order to maintain stability of the system, a block reward reduction that offsets the ice age delay would leave the system in the same general state as before.  Reducing the reward also decreases the likelihood of a miner driven chain split as Ethereum approaches proof-of-stake,” they said.

Ethereum’s technical picture

Looking technically, ETH/USD is supported by Fibo retracement level and short-term upside trend line currently at $460. Once this area is cleared, the sell-off may be extended towards $440 (Friday’s low ) and $421 (the lowest level of July 12). On the upside, the resistance is created by $473 (Sunday’s high). The psychological $500, followed by $516 (recent high) are likely to cap potential recovery for the time being

ETH/USD, 1-hour chart