Ethereum (ETH) is starting 2019 with some welcome gains, climbing about fifteen percent since the new year to $152 at time of writing. ETH has also regained its number two spot in terms of market capitalization rankings, after being recently knocked off by XRP.

Ethereum Price, ETHUSD CryptoCompare Chart

The climb above $150 comes after a brutal fall to double digits during December, when the price of ether dove as low as $80. It has taken only about two weeks to complete the roughly 90% climb back into triple digits.

Ethereum’s rally could face resistance between $170-185, which zone served as support in November during ether’s trip down to double digits.

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Ethereum Winter

Ethereum, both as a project and as a digital asset, has taken a shellacking during 2018 along with the rest of the cryptoasset industry. The price of ether declined almost 95% during the year, from roughly $1400 during January 2018.

Consensys, the Ethereum dApp incubator, has recently restructured its management strategy in a bid to be more productive and deliver useful (and profitable) Ethereum dApps. The company also fired thirteen percent of its quite large workforce – at one time numbering over 1000 – presumably feeling the pinch of collapsing ether prices.

Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s boy-genius creator, recently took to Twitter to muse on being thankful for things he’s usually not thankful for. He cautiously praised both the fiat monetary system for doing “a reasonably good job of being stable,” and Donald Trump for supporting progressive criminal justice reform in the US.