Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD hovers above $146.00 ready to unleash bullish potential

• ETH/USD is locked in a range after the Istanbul upgrade.
• The long-term resistance is created by SMA50 weekly.

ETH/USD has been locked in a tight range since the beginning of the week. Ethereum attempted to settle above $150.00 after the Istanbul hard fork, but the upside proved to be unsustainable as the coin is changing hands at $147.20 at the time of writing.

Notably, the long-awaited network update passed unnoticed by the markets as the price has barely changed in response. The number of transactions in the network returned to the pre-fork levels after a short-lived drawdown. 

Currently, over 75% of nodes moved to the new software, designed to make the network more reliable and scalable.

Ethereum's technical picture

Looking technically, ETH/USD desperately needs to clear $150.00 barrier to proceeding with the recovery. This psychological area is strengthened by the declining middle line of the daily Bollinger Band. Once it is out of the way, the recovery is likely to gain traction with the next focus on even stronger resistance of $159.40, created by the lower boundary of the previous consolidation channel, followed by another psychological hurdle at $160.00. Considering a high concentration fo technical barriers, the bulls may have a hard time pushing the price above this resistance area. 

On the downside, the strong support area is created by Sunday's low at $146.50. Once it is broken, the sell-off will continue towards psychological $140.00 and $137.75 ( the lower line of the daily Bollinger Band).

From the longer-term perspective, ETH/USD may develop a strong upside momentum once it clears SMA50 (Simple Moving Average) weekly currently at $184.00. This barrier has been limiting the coin's recovery since August. Once it is out of the way, we may proceed towards psychological $200.00 and $232.70 created by SMA200 weekly

ETH/USD, the daily chart

---