Ethereum Price Prediction: ETH Tumbles 1.5% As Vitalik Buterin Defends 45-Day Queue To Unstake ETH

The Ethereum price tumbled 1.5% in the last 24 hours to trade at $4,513 as of 6:41 a.m. EST on a 37% plunge in trading volume to $26.8 billion.

The plunge comes as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin defends the network’s 45-day exit queue for stakers.

That after Galaxy Digital’s head of digital called the length of the delays “troubling,” and wondered how such a network could ”power the next era of global capital markets.”

The comment triggered a backlash and his deletion of the posts.

Now Buterin has joined the discussion.

“It’s more like a soldier deciding to quit the army,” Buterin said. “Staking is about taking a solemn duty to defend the chain.”

But Buterin also acknowledged that the current staking queue design is not optimal, while saying that reducing the constants would make the chain “much less trustworthy” for nodes that do not go online frequently.  

”And in general that EF needs to be more active at the UX layer – which has already been happening for the past ~6 months, but ramping up takes time,” he wrote, acknowledging that the Ethereum Foundation has been working to address these concerns.

Meanwhile, Ethereum developers have confirmed the Fusaka upgrade will go active on December 3, following a systematic testnet rollout beginning on October 1 on Holesky.

The major hard fork will implement around 11-12 ETH Improvement Proposals, targeting scalability, node efficiency, and data availability improvements without adding new user-facing features.

The ETH price has been on a tear, recording an 86% year-to-date surge after hitting an all-time high of $4,946. Can the price soar even higher?

Ethereum Price Forms A Golden Cross

The ETH price has been showing strong bullish momentum over the past few months, pushing prices into higher ranges after a prolonged consolidation.

Currently trading at $4,513, the Ethereum price is moving within an ascending channel, indicating consistent upward pressure from buyers.

ETH recently touched a high of $4,954, suggesting a retest of resistance levels before making a decisive move. The Fibonacci retracement levels indicate significant support at $3,500 (0.618 level), which could serve as a strong cushion in the event of a pullback.

Looking at the indicators, one of the most significant signals on the chart is the Golden Cross at $2,957, which occurred when the 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) crossed above the 200-day SMA.

The golden cross is mainly seen as a long-term bullish indicator, reinforcing confidence in the continuation of the uptrend.

Moreover, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) is currently at 59.62, below its recent peak, suggesting that ETH is not in overbought territory and still has room for further upward movement.

ETH/USD Chart Analysis: TradingView

If ETH maintains momentum within the ascending channel, it could soon attempt another push toward the $5,500 mark, representing a 23% surge from the current level.

Conversely, if the bears take charge and the price of Ethereum drops below $4,000, it could weaken the bullish outlook, though strong support remains near $3,500.