if ETH hold above 168, downtrend will be over.
just an idea, the market is still very weak and bearish
ETH now is at $172, and it's increased than the OP said. The price still showing good progress to reach a higher price so we can hope the price can go to the higher price soon. But I don't think it will end the bear trend because bitcoin is on the way to increase too. And usually, if bitcoin increase, some altcoin can increase but we don't know about that. Will ETH still rise while bitcoin price increase or not? Only time will tell, and we can wait for it's happening.
Agree with you, although eth is performing better than what OP had expected but it also cannot mean that the downtrend will end because eth is not the main character in the market, it is still a character that depends on others, and bitcoin as we know it, it is always an important factor to decide the trend of altcoin, any increase or decrease pushes the market along, eth is difficult to be an exception. How eth's trend will go, time is truly a complete answer for all of us but right now we definitely can't pinpoint