$ETC at $8.75—are you brave enough to chase it?

In 12 hours it rose 7.5%, climbing from $8.17 to $8.75. The RSI crawled up out of the oversold zone, the hashrate surged from 127TH to 300TH+, and miners are charging in like crazy—so what about the price? It’s down 54% over 6 months, with its market cap now only $137 million. It can’t even match the hype of some altcoin.: Is this old thing really ready to be buried?

First, look at the surface: it’s up, but not fully up.

Over the past 12 hours, ETC’s price fluctuated 7.5%, rising from $8.17 to $8.75. But don’t get too excited—on the daily chart, it has just crawled out of a 6-month deep pit. The MACD histogram has already turned negative, and short-term momentum is running out of steam. It’s up, but confidence is lacking.

First thing: miners are voting with their feet.

Hashrate has exploded from 127TH at the start of 2024 to 259TH now, with the peak even touching 300TH+. This shows the network’s total computing power has doubled*. Miners aren’t stupid—they rush in because mining ETC can still be profitable. After Ethereum switched to POS, ETC is the only “old-school tough guy” still standing firm with POW, and these miners are its die-hard fans.

Second thing: the deflationary model is accelerating.

The Olympia upgrade is already being tested on the testnet, with the mainnet target activation at the end of 2026. This upgrade brings two brutal moves: first, introducing an EIP-1559-like mechanism—80% of transaction fees are burned and 20% go to the DAO treasury; second, the fifth reduction in issuance is expected to arrive in 8–10, and block rewards are cut by another 20%. **Burning while reducing issuance—supply gets tighter and tighter.**

Third thing: $8.00–$8.20 is the last line of defense.

Technical analysis tells you: with the current price at $8.75, the near-term resistance is $9.00–$9.04, while strong support sits at $8.00–$8.20. If it breaks below $8.00, the next stop is $7.50; if it holds, the rebound could look toward $9.50, even $10–$11. The RSI is neutral—neither overbought nor oversold—and trading volume is increasing moderately.

On one side: miners flooding in, deflation accelerating, and the upgrade landing soon.

On the other: macro fear, capital outflows, and the DeFi ecosystem is almost zero.

Key zone $8.00–$8.20—this is the last bottom line for both bulls and bears.

If you’re a short-term trader: buy in batches at the $8.20–$8.50 support zone, target $9.00–$9.50, and set a stop loss at $7.80.

If you’re a long-term player: start with a light position now and slowly accumulate around $8.20. Add again if it drops to $7.50, and top up when it climbs back to $9.00. The Olympia upgrade + the fifth reduction in issuance are the main themes for the second half of 2026—you’re not waiting for a rebound, you’re waiting for the main upswing.

In this bear market, what keeps you alive is never the gamblers chasing hot trends, trading the AI hype, or rushing into new public chains. It’s this kind of hard-core asset—with miner backing, deflation hard-coded into the code, and faith from veteran miners.

ETC is like Bitcoin back in the day—everyone thought it was old, slow, and should be buried, but every big drop it held up better than others; every rebound, it proved more solid than the rest. #Gate广场四月发帖挑战 $ETC