Ethereum (ETH) Price Struggles to Stay Above $1800 Despite Pectra Upgrade

Ethereum price forecast today leans bullish as ETH sustains a seven-day Golden Cross, reinforcing near-term upside potential.

Ethereum price dropped below $1,800 on Tuesday despite upbeat market sentiment from the Petra upgrade protocol and a seven-day Golden Cross in the 7-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) over the 50-day SMA.

However, renewed geopolitical risks and a temporary measure by Coinbase pulled traders into risk-off mode, weighing on the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency.

After setting a seven-day Golden Cross on April 26, the 7-day SMA remained closely above the 50-day SMA at $1,779.13, indicating potential for further gains in the near term.

As long as ETH price closes above the 50-day SMA ($1,779), the bullish structure could remain intact. A break below this level could shift technical focus to the 30-day SMA.

The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) also showed signs of slowing momentum. With the MACD line at 11.17 and the signal line at 10.04, the histogram remained in bullish territory.

Still, the MACD crossed into overbought territory in April with the differential widening rapidly. This signaled that although bullish trends were present, they might be slowing down.

From here, a deeper level of support is at $1,693, which corresponds to the 100-day SMA.

Ethereum price tumbles despite Pectra optimism as India missile strike sparks risk-off mood

Despite a lack of mainstream attention compared to last year’s Merge, Pectra’s technical depth has impressed members of the Ethereum ecosystem.

However, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency dropped below $1,800 on Tuesday, posting a 2.4% daily loss and 2.3% weekly decline, according to Coinckeco data.

The correction coincided with a return of geopolitical instability and a temporary liquidity measure by Coinbase, pulling market sentiment into risk-off territory.

Unconfirmed reports on Tuesday stated that India had launched a missile strike on Pakistani military targets, sparking a surge in regional tension and unsettling global risk markets.

The news came just hours before Ethereum’s scheduled Pectra upgrade, casting a shadow over one of the protocol’s most consequential milestones.

Furthermore, Coinbase announced a temporary suspension of ETH deposits and withdrawals for adjustments to the network. While a standard safeguard during transitions, this could heighten market panic.

With traders and institutional market-makers already on alert due to the South Asia conflict, any measure that lessens liquidity and increases uncertainty could favor outflows from riskier assets.

Ethereum touched a 24-hour low of $1,757, wiping out the positive sentiment from the Pectra upgrade. While developers remain focused on long-term protocol health, traders appear hesitant to deploy capital amid global uncertainty and short-term volatility.

Ethereum Pectra Upgrade heralds new era for scalability with account abstraction

Ethereum is set to rollout the highly anticipated Pectra Upgrade on May 7, marking its most significant technical overhaul since the Merge in 2022.

The update combines the Prague execution layer and Electra consensus layer, introducing 11 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) aimed at improving scalability, validator operations, and end-user functionality.

A centerpiece of the upgrade is EIP-7702, proposed by co-founder Vitalik Buterin, which enables account abstraction for externally owned accounts (EOAs).

The feature allows EOAs to temporarily function like smart contracts, supporting programmable wallet logic and gasless transactions, both crucial for broader adoption and wallet innovation.

Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko highlighted the impact of EIP-7594 and EIP-7691, which optimize blob transactions for rollup chains and improve data availability for Layer 2s.

“Pectra boosts validator UX and doubles blob count for Layer 2 scaling. This is our biggest upgrade since the Merge… EIP-7251 enables efficient solo staking, and EIP-7702 allows EOAs to act like smart contracts—unlocking account abstraction-style features in a backwards-compatible way.”

Major infrastructure players are preparing accordingly. Coinbase will be pausing ETH deposits and withdrawals from 2:50 AM to 3:45 AM PT on May 7 to ensure user fund safety during the transition.

Experts are now assessing the impact of this upgrade on Ethereum price as traders expect it to finally boost ETH's stalling price action.

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