Ethereum’s price has risen: It has risen 15% in the last 24 hours, and 44% over the past month. These are the likely drivers of the action. Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capital. It has reached its highest price in one month, as the network’s “merge” fast approaches.
According to CoinGecko data, Ethereum currently trades at $1,724.10. This represents a 12% rise in value over the last week. In the last 24 hours, the asset has risen 14%.
It was last priced at $1186.57 30 days ago, a 44% increase. To put it in perspective, Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency by market capital, up only 14.6% over the past month and trading at $23,773.30 as of the writing.
This year, the entire crypto market is struggling as investors are worried about rising inflation and a possible recession. They sell assets they consider “risky”, including U.S. stocks. Ethereum is down more than 65% from the $4,878.26 high it reached during last year’s crypto bull run.
It’s pumping right now. Why? It could be due to a long-awaited network upgrade known as The merge. This has, after years of delays, now appears to have a fixed date of September 19.
If you haven’t been following ” Ethereum 2.0″, Ethereum is making changes to its way of doing things. It has moved to a proof -of-stake consensus method. Ethereum currently uses the same consensus mechanism as Bitcoin. It is proof-of-work. This involves miners who use powerful computers and verify and validate transactions to secure the network.
Developers have been working for its upgrade Ethereum 2.0 since long. This would remove the need to use miners and move it to proof-of-stake. Validators, which can be any person, as long as they pledge at least 32 Ethereum or join a staking group on Coinbase or another provider, will secure the network by locking down the crypto.
According to the Ethereum Foundation, it will make Ethereum approximately 99% more efficient in terms of energy consumption. The best part, and the reason many analysts and investors are so excited about it, is that the upgrade will also maintain its economics.
The requirement that ETH in circulation be secured in order to issue new ETH could lead to a deflationary effect for the cryptocurrency. If the growth of ETH supply can be slowed, while the demand for the cryptocurrency remains high, it may have a positive effect on its price. The bullish outlook is still valid.
However, ETH’s upward trend may not last if macroeconomic conditions do not improve and new money isn’t rushing to the market like bulls might think.
