Crypto investors have had a tricky time recently, but Wednesday saw Bitcoin and Ethereum making major gains. The price of Bitcoin soared by over 20% to hit $23,500 while the value of Ethereum skyrocketed over 50%. All of which was enough to push the overall value of the crypto market above the $1 trillion mark for the first time since June.
The reason for this? It’s because Ethereum now has a provisional date to undergo a big upgrade called the Merge. This will drastically reduce its energy consumption and make the crypto much more attractive to investors.
The Merge will see Ethereum changing from using a proof-of-work system to using a proof-of-stake system instead. This may not sound like much but it will bring down the crypto network’s energy consumption by a staggering 99.95%. All of which would make Ethereum an attractive crypto investment option for those who have been put off by Bitcoin’s harmful environmental impact.
The provisional launch date for the Merge is now expected to be September 19. Crypto enthusiasts have noted that this transition could be as significant as three Bitcoin halvings and will do much to add value to the Ether coin.
The Merge has been long overdue and it also already experienced many delays. However, after several successful tests for similar merges, it looks like the Merge is ready to go and will give some much-needed good news for the beleaguered crypto markets.
Much more than a Bitcoin bounce
The crypto price rises look like they are more than just a reaction to the Merge’s provisional launch date. By Wednesday, there had been seven consecutive days for price rises for Bitcoin, and there were similar gains for coins ranging from Dogecoin and Polkadot through to Cardano and Binance Coin.
However, all of this good news must be put into some kind of context. After all, Bitcoin is still only trading at around one-third of what it was enjoying during its record price-highs of November 2021. Since then, it’s been nothing but bad news for crypto investors with the price of Bitcoin falling for pretty much eight months straight.
In particular the crypto bloodbath of May and June was so bad that many analysts have been predicting that some kind of bounce would be inevitable at some point this summer. However, it’s still debatable as to how long it will take Bitcoin to get back to the heady heights it was enjoying less than one year ago. With rumors of greater regulatory powers over the use of cryptocurrencies, it could still be some time before investors can feel easy about the likes of Bitcoin again.
All of which means that there is still plenty of uncertainty of whether the crypto markets have finally reached the bottom of their cycle, or whether the past week’s good news is just a temporary blip.
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