FX.co ★ Technical Analysis of ETH/USD for March 11, 2021

Crypto Industry News:

It seems that Nvidia's attempt to move Ethereum miners away from the new GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card by limiting its hash speed was short-lived.

Screenshots posted by Twitter account I_Leak_VN show a stack of eight RTX 3060 graphics cards operating at a much higher level than Nvidia's mining limit of 20-25 MH / s, while allegedly using Ethereum Dagger-Hashimoto's mining algorithm.

On the same day, a cryptocurrency-focused group from Vietnam published a graphic announcing that the RTX 3060 limit had indeed been bypassed and could now reach full power of 50 MH / s thanks to the modification.

According to reports on March 10, the breach of Nvidia's restrictions on Aether mining was apparently achieved using a custom modification. This contradicts the recent announcement by Nvidia's global public relations director Bryan Del Rizzo, who said on February 21 that secure interactions between GPU hardware, driver software, and computer firmware would prevent the removal of the limiter.

"It's not just the driver. There is a secure handshake between the driver, the RTX 3060 IC, and the BIOS (firmware) that prevents the hash rate limiter from being removed," wrote Del Rizzo on Twitter.

Nvidia has imposed a hash rate limiter to make its cards less attractive to cryptocurrency miners - especially those mining Ethereum. This came after high-profile concerns voiced by gaming enthusiasts who feared another GPU shortage due to demand from miners. According to Nvidia, Ether was the target because it has the highest global mining efficiency of any GPU-mineable coin.

In addition to the decision to limit the performance of Aether mining, Nvidia also announced the pending release of a graphics card specifically designed for cryptocurrency mining. Named the CMP line, the cards were to be sold to miners and were to be stripped of inputs for displays deemed unnecessary for cryptocurrency mining.

However, with the advent of the above-mentioned modification, these plans could come to naught and could cause a mad rush on the part of future miners to get more RTX 3060 units. Nvidia's future plans are also questioned given that it was going to release the upcoming RTX 3080 Ti with the same Ethereum mining restrictions.

Technical Market Outlook:

The ETH/USD pair has again hit the upper channel line around the level of $1,876, but the high was made in form of a Doji candlestick pattern. The market pulled-back and had been consolidating in a narrow range for some time now, so any violation of the level of 41,759 will open the road towards the lower levels like $1,748 and $1,700. Please notice, the 1:1 Fibonacci extension level located at $1,804 had been hit as well, but the response from bears is muted so far. The key short-term technical support is seen at the level of $1,633 and the next target for bulls is located at $1,902 (127% Fibonacci extension level).

Weekly Pivot Points:

WR3 - $2,090

WR2 - $1,882

WR1 - $1,810

Weekly Pivot - $1,598

WS1 - $1,500

WS2 - $1,295

WS3 - $1,210

Trading Recommendations:

The longer term up trend on the Ethereum continues despite the local counter-trend corrections. When the correction is terminated, the next long term target for ETH/USD is seen at the level of $2,100. The key long term technical support is seen at the level of $1,412, so only a weekly candle close below this level will invalidate the bullish scenario.