Ethereum (ETH) had a very uneven March, possibly hurting from blowback due to Bitcoin’s rough performance.

The ETH price is down just 0.81% from the previous day, bringing the token price to $3,474 (ETH/USD). This is not the lowest we have seen ETH in the last week, but it is a step back from where many analysts thought it would be headed leading into the Bitcoin halving event.

The expectation was that as Bitcoin nears its halving, BTC’s rate would climb and that would have a ripple effect on the rest of the crypto market. With both of these major coins in decline today, that does not seem to be the case, and Bitcoin is halving in 10 days. We may see more bullish action closer to the event, though.

Held Back by Inflation

Ethereum will have a hard time recovering after today’s US CPI data was released. That report showed that US inflation is up for March, the third consecutive month for 2024, as Core CPI and CPI both show higher than expected increases.

Inflation will be a thorn in Ethereum’s side as investors try to push it to a $4,000 price point. If inflation remains high, Ethereum will struggle to even break above $3,600 over the next month.

Ethereum briefly surged above $4,000 in early March, but it may not repeat that achievement for a while. Bitcoin’s halving could help there, but the recent hot inflation data will keep it from staying high for long.

From January to March, whale addresses decreased by 2%, which may not seem like much, but those are accounts that hold between 100 and 100,00 ETH coins.

Our warning to investors is that as long as inflation is elevated, cryptocurrency will be a riskier market than usual. If the price does swing high, it may not last for long, and investors should take advantage of that.