As the cryptocurrency market prepares for next month’s Ethereum Merge, volatility is all over the place in the ecosystem. With Merge, there could be a ripple effect on other cryptocurrencies as well. But there is widespread anticipation that the Ethereum (ETH) price could shoot up after the upgrade. The Merge is scheduled for around September 15 by the developers.
Meanwhile, it remains to be seen how Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies would react in the weeks leading to the upgrade. However, any chance of the Ethereum Merge going wrong or having a negative impact would be devastating for the ecosystem. The market has already suffered a tough year so far with back to back setbacks starting from Terra fallout.
Samson Mow, a Bitcoin supporter, feels the Ethereum developers are prioritizing tokenomics over strengthening the network. As a result of the Merge, Ethereum could land itself in the middle of regulatory action, he added. Mow further said the requirement to stake 32 ETH made proof of stake highly centralized. Ethereum validators would need to deposit 32 ETH to activate the software.
“Ethereum’s problems are caused by constantly optimizing for tokenomics over decentralization, security, and resilience. It looks like the Merge and POS will lead to complete regulatory capture by centralized exchanges and staking platforms, and there’s no way out for them.”
A section of investors in the crypto community are worried about the Merge’s potential risk for the entire market. The Merge has huge downside risk for digital assets yet everyone is bulled up, said one Foss on Twitter. He feels so due to Ethereum’s trading correlation with BTC. So far, Ethereum showed positive momentum with the recent price hike despite headwinds. The Ethereum Merge progress is 96.55% complete, as per OKLink data. Going by the current hashrate, the Merge is expected to most likely happen around September 15.
As of writing, Ethereum is trading at $1,704.02, down 0.86% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. In the last one week, Ethereum dropped 8.61% after a recent reach to the $2,000 mark.
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