After the Merge announcement, the hype surrounding the Ethereum network was building. It would take place on September 15, if all goes according to plan. The news had caused a huge uptake in the price of ETH, with it reaching above $2,000 briefly. As people become more used to the Merge, however, it has been slowing down over the past weeks. The price of ETH is now on the decline.
ETH Slides Up to $1,500
Ethereum’s price seems to have hit its local peak, after an incredible 3-week run. After hitting $2,000, the market experienced a severe correction, suffering double-digit losses. The part of ETH has lost approximately $500, which amounts to a loss of 25% for this digital asset.
Investors still see the Merge as a sign of hope, even though it is no longer in sight. The asset remains above its 50-day moving mean, which indicates that bears are resisting the selling trend.
While the Merge was anticipated to slow down, this is not surprising. As the market welcomes the next month, investors are expected to feel more positive. Furthermore, it is very likely that this will turn into a ‘buy the rumor, sell the news’ event where investors ramp up buying all the way up to the Merge and dump on completion.
This would mean that the price for ETH will likely reach $2,000 before the Merge. Markets will be pushed upwards by the accelerated buying of ETH and staking ahead of the update, just as Bitcoin did previously.
Ethereum Staking Goes up
Despite the fact that ETH’s price has fallen due to the decrease in hype, investors have not been unable to take advantage of the opportunity of staking on this network. Since the Merge announcement, the Ethereum 2.0 contract has seen new milestones in staking.
The network’s total ETH staked had rapidly surpassed 13.3 millions, which accounts for approximately 11% of total ETH supply. According to the most recent data, 13,444,552 Ethereum has been staked.
This is a remarkable figure considering where the contract stood at the beginning the month. There have been approximately 153,000 new ETH staked to the contract in the August month alone. It is approximately 36,000 ETH staked each week.
However, the value of ETH staked in the network’s dollar has dropped. Last week, it had sat closer to $25 billion as Ethereum’s price was on the rise. ETH’s total stake is currently valued at $20.9 billion.
ETH’s price is currently down 17.35% in the last 7 days. According to Coinmarketcap it is currently trading at $1,574, with an overall market cap of $190 Billion.
CNBC featured image, Chart from TradingView.com
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