Ethereum tops $1,600 as ‘Bellatrix’ hard-fork begins

Ethereum rallied on Tuesday, with founder Vitalik Buterin confirming that part of the “Merge” began today. In a tweet, he stated, “What’s happening today is Bellatrix’s hard fork, preparing the channel for the merger“. Bitcoin was also higher, trading near $20,000.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin briefly surpassed $20,000 on Tuesday, as the token slightly increased in price after hitting its low. After hitting a low of $19,673.05 on Monday, BTC jumped to a high of $20,155.27 earlier in today’s session.

Today’s move once again saw bitcoin fail to break out of its short-term ceiling of $20,230, which has been in place since August 26.

Looking at the chart, it appears that another point of resistance was in place during this period, with the 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) also failing to break out from its ceiling.

Currently, the RSI is at 37.54, which is slightly below the aforementioned resistance point of 38.00. If price strength were to exceed this point, we could see an increase in inflation towards $21,000.

Ethereum

The big rise of the day was ethereum, which gained as the long-awaited merger drew closer. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin tweeted today, “The merger is still expected around September 13-15“.

He added that “what is happening today is the hard fork of Bellatrix, which prepares the chain for the merger.“

ETH jumped during today’s session, hitting a high of $1,670.71 earlier in the day. This is the highest point reached by ethereum since August 26, and brings the token closer to a ceiling of $1,700.

Due to today’s price jump, the RSI has now reached its strongest point in over three weeks, with a current reading of 54.70.