Ethereum price analysis: ETH/USD struggling under $120.00 dragged down bu Constantinople delay

• The fork is supposed to take place at block 7.28M, approximately on February 27.
• ETH/USD price movements coincide with market sentiments.

ETH/USD is trading marginally below $117.00 handle at the time of writing. The third largest coin with market value $12.2B has lost over 5% on a day-over-day basis following the trend of the market.

It is highly probable that Constantinople delay increased the downside pressure on the market. While Ethereum’s price has barely moved if compared to the week-old levels, the coin had to give in a critical $120.00 handle during Sunday trading. Bears pushed it as low as $113.28, though profit-taking triggered a feeble recovery.

"Seems we're going with block 7.28M for the #Ethereum Constantinople refork scheduled for the 27th of February! Will be a single fork on mainnet and a post-Constantinople-fixup fork on the testnets to get them back in line feature wise with the main network, Péter Szilágyi, a team lead at Ethereum wrote in his Twitter.

Looking technically, the coin needs to get back above $120.00 as soon as possible to mitigate the short-term bearish pressure and get a chance for an extended recovery. Once this handle is out of the way, ETH bulls will set their eyes at $123.40 (SMA50, 4-hour). Psychological 130.00 now looks like unattainable altitude, but a move above the level will improve the longer-term picture.

On the downside, the local support is created by the recent low of $113.28, followed by critical $100.00 handle.

ETH/USD, 4-hour chart