ETH and SOL are strong, but the most powerful mainstream token is actually it?

Source: Decrypt

Author: Jose Antonio Lanz, Guillermo Jimenez

Compiled and organized by: BitpushNews

Abstract

As the market rebound cools and uncertainty intensifies, the tone of the crypto market has shifted from "greed" to "fear."

Even so, mainstream cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Solana continue to show strong resilience.

And the most eye-catching performance of the day might be an unexpected surprise: Is Chainlink making a comeback?

Even though market sentiment has shifted to "fear", the crypto market seems to be entering a cautious rebound mode.

Yesterday, Bitcoin fell to just above $113,000, down 2%. Bulls are trying to make up for this drop today. Despite mixed signals from the broader market, a few high-risk assets are showing strong signs: Ethereum, Solana, and the backbone of the DeFi sector, Chainlink.

First, let's look at the big picture: today's July FOMC meeting minutes and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's speech in Jackson Hole two days later may clarify the timing of interest rate cuts, which keeps traders on alert for now.

The entire market is feeling uncertainty: the S&P 500 index fell nearly 1% today, while the crypto fear and greed index has undergone a significant change in just seven days. Last week, the vast majority of the crypto market was in the "greed" range, scoring above 70 (0 to 100). Now, the index has dropped to a "fear" level of 44, the lowest since June.

Despite this, Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), and Chainlink (LINK) are still attracting buyers. Why? Let's dive into the charts for analysis:

Ethereum (ETH): Resilient

Long-term holders of Ethereum would undoubtedly say that it is full of resilience. Today, the opening price of ETH was close to $4,000, reaching a two-week low, but has since surged to over $4,300. Despite the general uncertainty in the market, the intraday increase was as high as 7.37%.

The long candlestick with a solid body (formed by trading volume) that is still forming today seems likely to offset yesterday's decline. If confirmed, this bullish reversal after a downtrend usually indicates that buyers are actively defending the support level, which often signals further upward movement.

Of course, downward pressure still exists, but bulls and bears are fiercely battling within this price range. The reason why bulls can gain so much support is thanks to the large purchases made by Ethereum treasury companies like BitMine and Sharplink. On Monday, BitMine, owned by Tom Lee, announced the purchase of $1.7 billion worth of ETH again, while Sharplink stated yesterday that it spent $600 million to buy Ethereum.

This is enough to keep traders on the Myriad prediction market optimistic. Myriad users currently believe that the chance of Ethereum reaching $5,000 before the end of the year is 74%, up from 66% yesterday.

From a broader perspective, the ETH chart shows that it has been forming a bullish trend since the end of April. The sell signal from yesterday may still push the price down towards $3,600, but in the long term, it will maintain an overall bullish trajectory.

For traders, the Average Directional Index (ADX) provides a quick window into understanding the trend direction. ADX measures the strength of a trend, regardless of direction, ranging from 0 to 100. A value above 25 indicates a trend is established, and above 40 suggests very strong momentum. The ADX for ETH is 42, indicating that we are witnessing one of the strongest directional fluctuations in recent months.

Traders will interpret this as a strong bullish signal, as they know that the market usually trends strongly until the ADX peaks and starts to reverse. However, this has not yet occurred for ETH.

The Exponential Moving Average (EMA) also paints the same striking picture. Ethereum's 50-day EMA is far below the current price, around $2,800. The 200-day EMA provides a foundation around $2,400. This wide separation (known as moving average divergence) typically occurs during a protracted bull market. When the short-term average is significantly higher than the long-term average, it indicates sustained buying pressure often followed by institutional traders.

Relative Strength Index (RSI) is currently at 58, in what traders call the "Goldilocks zone"—neither too hot nor too cold. RSI measures momentum on a scale from 0 to 100, with above 70 indicating overbought conditions, usually signaling a pullback. An RSI of 58 suggests that ETH has significant room for upward movement before reaching levels that typically trigger automatic sell actions.

Squeeze Momentum Indicator ( also indicates that the market has released volatility from the previous consolidation phase. This usually suggests that we are in an active trend phase rather than consolidation, which perfectly aligns with high ADX readings.

Key price level:

Immediate support: $4,000 (psychological barrier and previous resistance level)

Strong support: $3,600 (50-day EMA zone)

Immediate resistance: $4,400 (recent pullback area)

Strong resistance: $4,878 (August high)

Solana )SOL(: Shining Against the Odds

Ethereum's biggest competitor Solana has also experienced a surge this year, although the current charts do not depict the same bullish outlook.

Today's SOL price movement indicates it is in a consolidation state, with Solana opening at $176.29 and then surging above $184. The 4.75% increase masks the intraday fluctuations, and SOL has erased yesterday's losses. This pattern, especially after bouncing back from $160, suggests that both buyers and sellers are hesitant, which typically signals a consolidation before the next directional move.

From a broader perspective, many swing traders and most position traders will consider that SOL has been forming a classic "cup and handle" pattern since May. The "cup" was formed from May to July, with the low point around $105, while the current price consolidation between $175 and $195 forms the "handle." This bullish continuation pattern typically breaks upward, with a measured target price of around $285 (adding the depth of the cup to the breakout point near $195).

However, from the perspective of day traders and swing traders who pay closer attention to shorter time frames, the "double top" pattern (an M shape, where the price fails to break through a weak resistance level) may indicate that the price could continue to decline over the next few days.

It is these contradictory signals that may lead traders on Myriad to feel bearish sentiment. Myriad users currently believe that the chances of Solana breaking through its historical high of $294 within this year is only 40%. This is down from nearly a 50-50 chance last weekend.

Currently, despite facing competition in the meme coin space from the Ethereum Layer-2 network Base and the trading volume generated from such transactions, Solana is still maintaining key support levels. The ADX is at 26, confirming the establishment of a trend; however, in this case, it is a very, very slow bullish trend, with low volatility and relatively low returns.

The moving average configuration reveals an interesting battle. The 50-day EMA around $165 provides support nearby, while the 200-day EMA is located lower at around $159. This relatively small price difference compared to ETH suggests that SOL is in the early stages of its trend development, with neither bulls nor bears having a clear advantage.

The RSI is 53, confirming neutral momentum - neither overbought nor oversold.

However, the continuously improving fundamentals of Solana may start to attract more attention from large institutional investors. A treasury company around Solana has begun to take shape, but it is far from the levels of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Earlier this month, the largest SOL treasury, DeFi Development Corp, purchased approximately $18 million worth of SOL, bringing its total holdings to over $200 million.

The proposed Alpenglow upgrade for Solana is expected to be launched later this year, aimed at making this already fast network even faster, which is also a factor worth considering for future network usage and demand for SOL.

Key price level:

Immediate support: $175 (recent consolidation low)

Strong support: $165 (50-day EMA)

Immediate resistance: $195 (psychological level)

Strong resistance: $209 (August high)

Chainlink )LINK(: Multi-arm return

Most of you may be familiar with the XRP bulls, but you may not have heard of the Link bulls—these equally vocal Chainlink supporters are less known.

Once upon a time, even Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, was one of them. However, in recent years, Chainlink has lost some of its momentum, having set a historical high of over $52 four years ago.

Therefore, Link may now be迎来 a counterattack, which may be somewhat unexpected. Chainlink is an oracle platform that provides pricing data for almost all DeFi applications. It is currently doing some things that even the mainstream crypto assets mentioned above cannot do: it has risen 152% in the past year, 31% in the past 30 days, and 53% in the past two weeks, and has even achieved a considerable double-digit increase today.

It is this strong intraday increase that has sent a powerful bullish signal for Chainlink and its Link bulls while the entire market retreats due to "fear."

LINK opened today at $23.50, then soared to above $26, achieving an impressive increase of 10.77%, completely erasing yesterday's losses.

The candlestick shows a large green entity with almost no shadow – this is a textbook bullish engulfing pattern. This pattern, where today’s green candlestick completely "engulfs" yesterday’s red candlestick, is a strong reversal signal in technical analysis.

A broader chart shows that since the low point of $10.50 in December 2024, LINK has been forming a massive "round bottom pattern" (also known as a cup bottom). This pattern extends through the first half of 2025, and a breakout above $16 in July confirms the completion of this pattern.

The subsequent rise to $26 in early August represented an initial push for this base, and the current pullback to the $19 area seems to be a healthy retest of the breakout zone. Today's bullish engulfing candlestick at this key support level indicates that the retest is complete, and LINK may be ready for the next round of upward movement, with a measured target pointing to $31.

The ADX is 36, indicating a "strong trend," well above the confirmation level of 25, but below the extreme reading of over 40 that typically marks trend exhaustion.

Traders may also perceive that the moving averages appear bullish. The 50-day EMA provides support around $19.10, while the 200-day EMA is near $16.80. LINK is trading above both moving averages and is widening the distance, confirming a bullish market structure.

The RSI is at 67, close to but not yet breaking the overbought threshold of 70. This is critical because algorithmic trading systems that reference the RSI may trigger sell orders when the indicator rises above 70. LINK has previously proven that it can maintain RSI readings between 65-75 during a bull market without an immediate pullback, indicating that its bulls still have momentum to advance.

Key price level:

Immediate support: $21 (psychological barrier)

Strong support: $19 (50-day EMA)

Immediate resistance: $27 (integer resistance level)

Strong resistance: $31 (December 2024 peak)

Statement:

The author's views and opinions are for reference only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.