- Ethereum Classic could be a good candidate for a bullish bounce as it retested the long-term support range.
- ETC struggled to secure strong bullish volumes, although derivatives demand could see progress.
Is Ethereum Classic [ETC] still worth trading or investing at the end of 2023? Well, the altcoin bulls have really struggled to secure dominance during the crypto winter. But should anyone expand their short- and long-term portfolio with ETC?
Is your portfolio green? View the ETC profit calculator
The good news is that choosing Ethereum Classic is not that difficult. The ideal portfolio should be diverse and consist of cryptocurrencies from different segments. For example, it could include cryptos from promising Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks, as well as Proof-of-Work (PoW) networks.
ETC is one of the few coins native to a PoS network.
Of course, ETC has something else to offer. It is affiliated with Ethereum, one of the most popular blockchain networks in the world. This alone could encourage many to pick up some ETC during the next bull run.
However, these are still within the realm of speculation and may not exactly represent the current status quo.
Can ETC exert significant buying pressure?
Ethereum Classic could potentially benefit from robust demand in the future, but this was lacking at the time of writing. The cryptocurrency has been generally declining since early 2023, maintaining the same trend we saw last year.
ETC’s price action suggested that we could see the bulls trying to challenge the bears from the press time level. The cryptocurrency was trading at $14.94 at the time of writing. This was notable as it was still within the same low range that acted as long-term support.

Source: TradingView
An important point here is that the same support level has been retested several times in the past. This means that it is very likely that the price can recover from the same level before the next short-term rally. The same can be said about its long-term potential.
But could Ethereum Classic recover from the same support level? At the time of writing, weighted sentiment showed some improvement from the lowest price level since early October. However, it also revealed a lack of strong interest.

Source: Santiment
ETC’s volume metric also reflected the lack of excitement in the cryptocurrency. Press observations of the chain showed that volume had fallen to the lowest level in four weeks.
Read Ethereum Classic’s [ETC] Price forecast 2023-24
On the other hand, the Binance Funding Rate was positive again, indicating that demand for Ethereum Classic was growing in the derivatives market.

Source: Santiment
While the positive financing rates may indicate a recovery in demand, it was clear that spot market demand was still quite low at the time of writing. As such, there is a chance that the price action will remain bearish in the short term.