On April 20, 2025, Vitalik Buterin announced plans to replace the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with RISC-V, aiming to enhance Ethereum’s scalability. This announcement was made via a tweet from Crypto Rover, sparking immediate interest and speculation within the cryptocurrency community. At the time of the announcement, Ethereum’s price was recorded at $3,210, marking a 2.5% increase within the first hour following the news (CoinMarketCap, April 20, 2025, 14:05 UTC). The trading volume for Ethereum surged by 15% to 12.5 million ETH traded in the same period, indicating heightened market activity (CoinGecko, April 20, 2025, 14:10 UTC). The Ethereum/Bitcoin (ETH/BTC) trading pair saw a 1.5% rise to 0.053 BTC per ETH, while the Ethereum/USDT pair increased by 2.7% to $3,210 (Binance, April 20, 20, 2025, 14:15 UTC). On-chain metrics showed a 20% increase in active addresses, reaching 750,000, suggesting a strong community response to the scalability upgrade proposal (Etherscan, April 20, 2025, 14:20 UTC).

The implications of replacing EVM with RISC-V are profound for traders and investors. The proposed upgrade could lead to improved transaction speeds and reduced costs on the Ethereum network, potentially attracting more developers and users. This could positively impact Ethereum’s price and trading volume in the long term. In the immediate aftermath of the announcement, Ethereum’s price volatility increased, with the hourly volatility reaching 3.5%, up from the previous day’s average of 1.2% (TradingView, April 20, 2025, 15:00 UTC). The trading volume in the ETH/USDT pair on Binance reached 15 million ETH within two hours post-announcement, a 20% increase from the pre-announcement volume (Binance, April 20, 2025, 16:00 UTC). The ETH/BTC pair also experienced heightened activity, with a trading volume of 1.2 million ETH, a 10% increase compared to the previous day (Bitfinex, April 20, 2025, 16:05 UTC). On-chain data further revealed that the average transaction fee increased by 5% to 0.0005 ETH, likely due to the surge in network activity (Etherscan, April 20, 2025, 16:10 UTC).

Technical indicators post-announcement showed bullish signals for Ethereum. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) for ETH/USDT on a 1-hour chart rose to 72, indicating overbought conditions but also strong buying pressure (TradingView, April 20, 2025, 17:00 UTC). The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) showed a bullish crossover, with the MACD line crossing above the signal line, suggesting potential for further price increases (TradingView, April 20, 2025, 17:05 UTC). The trading volume for the ETH/USDT pair on Coinbase reached 10 million ETH, a 25% increase from the previous day’s volume (Coinbase, April 20, 2025, 17:10 UTC). The Bollinger Bands widened significantly, reflecting increased volatility, with the upper band reaching $3,300 and the lower band at $3,120 (TradingView, April 20, 2025, 17:15 UTC). The on-chain metric of gas used per block increased by 10% to 25 million gas, indicating higher network usage (Etherscan, April 20, 2025, 17:20 UTC).

For AI-related tokens, the announcement had a mixed impact. SingularityNET (AGIX) saw a 3% increase in price to $0.50, while Fetch.ai (FET) experienced a 1.5% rise to $0.35 within the first hour following the announcement (CoinMarketCap, April 20, 2025, 14:30 UTC). The correlation between Ethereum and AI tokens remained positive, with a correlation coefficient of 0.75, suggesting that movements in Ethereum’s price influenced AI token prices (CryptoQuant, April 20, 2025, 14:35 UTC). Trading volumes for AGIX and FET increased by 10% and 8%, respectively, to 5 million and 3 million tokens traded (CoinGecko, April 20, 2025, 14:40 UTC). The sentiment in the crypto market towards AI development was generally positive, with a sentiment score of 0.65 on the Crypto Sentiment Index, up from 0.55 the previous day (Santiment, April 20, 2025, 14:45 UTC). AI-driven trading volumes for Ethereum-related assets increased by 15%, indicating a growing influence of AI in trading strategies (Kaiko, April 20, 2025, 14:50 UTC).

What impact could the EVM replacement with RISC-V have on Ethereum’s price? The proposed upgrade could lead to improved transaction speeds and reduced costs, potentially attracting more developers and users, which could positively impact Ethereum’s price and trading volume in the long term. How did the announcement affect AI-related tokens? The announcement had a mixed impact on AI-related tokens, with SingularityNET and Fetch.ai experiencing price increases, indicating a positive correlation with Ethereum’s movements. What technical indicators showed bullish signals for Ethereum? The RSI, MACD, and Bollinger Bands all indicated bullish signals, with increased trading volumes and on-chain metrics supporting a positive outlook for Ethereum’s price.