Ethereum continues its descent, down 1%, but it's not all bad

Ethereum (ETH) has had a rocky few months. Its price is currently down 1% on the day, 20% in the last 15 days and an even worse 50% since its mid-June high of $350. It's now worth just $175.

But looking at the longer picture, there is a slightly rising trend. Since the coin hit lows of $86 in December, 2018, it has been bouncing off higher lows (where each time the coin comes down, its lowest point is higher than the previous time). This shows growing support for the coin. So, while it did peak in the summer, and has retreated considerably, it's slowly recovering.

When compared to Bitcoin, there's some positive news for Ethereum too. Since the start of September, its price, when measured in Bitcoin, has increased from 0.017 BTC to 0.021 BTC. That means it has outperformed Bitcoin during that time period. However, it's still down against Bitcoin in the long term and is a long way off from when 1 ETH was worth 0.1 BTC.

Ethereum's trading volumes look strong at $6.5 billion in the last 24 hours. This figure is comparatively high compared to Bitcoin's daily volume of $14 billion—given that Ethereum only makes up 13% of Bitcoin's respective market cap.

But as the general market seems to slide, and the total cryptocurrency market cap shrinks, the broader picture isn't looking too optimistic.