The price of ether, the native token of the ethereum platform, is bucking the bearish trend seen in top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

As per data source OnChainFX, ether (ETH) has appreciated by 7.44 percent in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, bitcoin, litecoin, stellar lumens and dash are down at least 3 percent each. Tron is down 11 percent, while Ripple (XRP) has depreciated by 8.9 percent on the day. As of writing, ETH is trading at $1,232.34 levels.

However, as CoinDesk reported today, ethereum’s recent price rises are masking technical problems related to some blockchain operations, issues that could hinder growth if not resolved.

Also, as per CoinMarketCap, trading volumes almost doubled to $8.45 billion yesterday from the Jan. 4 volume of $4.6 billion. The 24-hour trading volume stands at $7.66 billion. A high volume rally indicates strong hands are at play.

Despite being well bid, ETH is still down 4.25 percent from a record $1,267 set yesterday. And while there is no reason to panic, the technical chart does show early signs of bull market exhaustion.

Ether chart

The above chart (prices as per Coinbase) shows:

• Spinning top candle: Yesterday’s spinning top candle shows indecision in the marketplace or bull market exhaustion.
• 5-day and 10-day moving averages (MA) continue to slope upwards in favor of the bulls.
• The relative strength index (RSI) shows overbought conditions.

View

• A close (as per UTC) below $1,118.30 (Sunday’s high) would confirm spinning top bearish reversal and could yield a short-term pullback to sub-$1,000 levels.
• The upward sloping 10-day MA indicates dips could be short-lived.
• If prices see a sustained move above the previous day’s high of $1,228, the big level to watch out for is $1,664 (261.8 percent Fibonacci extension).