Ethereum is currently in an upswing, with some analysts suggesting that it's about to enter a new spike.

Ethereum's price is going up. From 27 January to 29 January it's climbed from about 20% from US$1,050 to around $1,250, according to CoinMarketCap.

Explaining why a cryptocurrency's price has moved is tricky, but we can identify some likely factors.

Potential factors include:

A predictable rise based on a study of moving average statistics

A general market recovery and conformance to typical past ETH trading patterns

Bitfinex adding ETH trading pairs

Natural growth of the Ethereum ecosystem, including ERC20 ICOs, decentralised exchanges and other ERC20 coins

A complimentary rating from the Weiss agency

Let's look at each factor in turn

1. 100-230 day moving average predictions

The 100-day moving average (MA) simply refers to something's average price over the last 100 days, when measured at the same time each day. At least one analysis of previous moving MAs has marked ETH for another bull run right about now. This particular MA shows the 100-day (pink) to 230-day (grey and hardly visible) moving averages in a rainbow form.

When the rainbow is pink on top it means the MAs of the last 100 days have been higher than the MAs of the last 230 days, which broadly means prices are going up.

When the grey and white is on top, it broadly means prices are going down. More specifically, it shows that prices were higher on average in the last 230 days than in the last 100 days alone.

The distance between each colour of the rainbow shows how quickly prices are moving. Wider gaps means quicker price changes.

As you can see, the big downturn of late put the grey part of the rainbow on top. But it looks like it's turning around so that the pink part of the rainbow will move back to the top. This is the "roll-over" being referred to.

Basically, every time this particular type of ETH data visualisation has moved in this particular way since January 2016, it's been followed by a price climb. The current price rise might be a self-fulfilling prophecy as people are buying in anticipation of further price rises in the near future.

This kind of price pattern has been underway for about the last month (before the market slump and other current events) and has remained fairly consistent since the start of 2016, so someone watching this chart on 8 January might have been able to predict the current rise.

This suggests that the other four factors discussed here were either predicted by the rainbow graph, or that the current price upswing is the continuation of a pattern that's been underway for months already and that the bulk of the current price increases are more likely to be the result of wider long-term market factors rather the specific short-term factors discussed here.

2. Recovery and typical Ethereum trading patterns

Rising seas lift all boats. As the cryptocurrency market recovers from a painful few weeks, a lot of coins are on an upswing, including Ethereum.

Its previous price history also suggested that it would recover fairly painlessly. Even as it fell back below US$1,000, it was predicted that ETH would hit US$1,300 again with relative ease.

3. Bitfinex adds ETH pairs

On 24 January, shortly before the start of the current upswing, Bitfinex announced that it was adding ETH trading pairs for all its available coins, in addition to BTC and USD.

This immediately gave traders on Bitfinex the ability to buy and sell a wide range of other coins with Ether. A lot of traders who previously used BTC for their Bitfinex trades might have started using ETH instead for lower fees and quicker transfers, immediately boosting the demand.

4. Natural growth of the ERC20 ecosystem

ERC20 decentralised exchanges are continuing to grow. New ones are going into testing and going live, and some of the older ones also have exciting developments of their own.

It's also still one of the most popular platforms for new ICOs, with many projects choosing to inject themselves into an already-grown ecosystem and token standard rather than build their own.

Coins like 0x and OmiseGO are also coming out to greatly expand the Ethereum ecosystem, and seeing their own price increases, while upcoming developments like Casper are also bolstering excitement for the "Ethereum brand".

5. A fairly complimentary rating from the Weiss agency

The Weiss Ratings agency gave Ethereum and EOS the highest scores of all coins, of a solid B.

The agency didn't disclose its grading system or what the scores really mean in a tangible sense, but the relatively complimentary B grade might have drawn a bit more interest to Ethereum.

Disclaimer: This information should not be interpreted as an endorsement of cryptocurrency or any specific provider, service or offering. It is not a recommendation to trade. Cryptocurrencies are speculative, complex and involve significant risks – they are highly volatile and sensitive to secondary activity. Performance is unpredictable and past performance is no guarantee of future performance. Consider your own circumstances, and obtain your own advice, before relying on this information. You should also verify the nature of any product or service (including its legal status and relevant regulatory requirements) and consult the relevant Regulators' websites before making any decision. Finder, or the author, may have holdings in the cryptocurrencies discussed.