Ethereum fell below the critical $1,600 mark once again today, surrendering earlier gains after briefly touching $1,653. The downturn mirrored related movements in Bitcoin, following a short-lived breakout through resistance levels near $1,600 and $1,620, which was quickly halted by intensified selling pressure.
Currently trading near $1,575, Ethereum has dropped approximately 3.1% during the past week. The slump coincides with a notable proposal by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin to significantly revamp the platform’s fundamental technology. Buterin recently suggested replacing Ethereum’s current Virtual Machine (EVM) with the RISC-V architecture. He argued this shift could substantially improve Ethereum’s performance and scalability, reducing computational costs for proving efficiency by over 50 times. According to Buterin, RISC-V is already being effectively employed in zero-knowledge environments and could solve considerable performance bottlenecks that Ethereum has faced amid historically low network activity and declining transaction fees. Importantly, the proposed shift to RISC-V maintains backward compatibility, meaning existing Ethereum applications could remain functional without major disruptions.
Despite Ethereum’s latest descent, some analysts interpret recent price movements as signs of underlying strength. They point out ETH’s formation of higher lows, indicating continued buyer interest despite volatility. Moreover, Ethereum has broken out of a persistent downtrend seen since February 2025, fueling some market optimism. If Ethereum can sustain prices above $1,600 in the near term, analysts expect a potential rally toward the $2,000 milestone during the coming month.
However, bearish sentiment persists among some influential market observers. Veteran commodity trader Peter Brandt, for instance, recently warned of a possible extended downside, predicting Ethereum could revisit its lowest levels seen back in 2022, potentially dropping as low as $800.
