Breaking: Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin Says The Merge Is Coming Sooner

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in a tweet on Tuesday said the Merge is expected to trigger between September 13-15. The increase in the network’s hash rate is pushing the Merge to come sooner than September 15.

The Bellatrix upgrade is scheduled to happen today on the Beacon Chain in epoch 144896 at 11:34:47 am UTC. The ETH Price soars over 6% ahead of the Bellatrix hard fork.

Vitalik Buterin Predicts the Merge Between September 13-15

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, in a tweet on September 6 anticipates the Merge to happen between September 13-15. He also reminds users to update their clients before the Bellatrix hard fork scheduled for epoch 144896 on the Beacon Chain at 11:34:47 am UTC.

“The merge is still expected to happen around Sep 13-15. What’s happening today is the Bellatrix hard fork, which *prepares* the chain for the merge. Still important though – make sure to update your clients!”

According to OKLink’s Ethereum The Merge Countdown, the readiness for the Merge has reached almost 99%. Moreover, the network hash rate is 892.23 TH/s, still above the needed level of 872 TH/s which is enough to trigger the merge of Ethereum Mainnet and Beacon Chain at the set terminal total difficulty (TTD) of 58750000000000000000000.

The Bellatrix hard fork prepares the Beacon Chain (consensus layer) for the merge with Ethereum Mainnet (execution layer). All nodes need to update clients to successfully validate blocks after the hard fork. The hard fork adds new rules to the protocol.

The next upgrade will be Paris hard fork, which will happen on the execution layer. Followed by the Merge between September 13-15.

According to Ethereum Foundation’s recommended Merge date tracker, the estimated date is September 15 at 09:44:01 UTC. The data changes as per the hash rate. However, the most likely date is September 14.

Ethereum (ETH) Price Rises Before the Hard Fork

The Ethereum (ETH) price is rising ahead of the Bellatrix upgrade. The ETH price has soared over 6% in the last 24 hours, with the current price trading at $1,659.

The trading volume has jumped higher to 65%. Also, Ethereum has made a 24-hour low and high of $1,559 and $1,670. However, the rally will be short-lived as the ETH price is set to be deflationary after the Merge.