Ethereum Classic, one of the old altcoin projects, capitalizes on the anticipation of Ethereum’s landmark “Merge” event. ETC rallied 11.5 percent on Monday from $32.12 to $36.10. The price of the Ethereum fork previously ranged between $30.90 and $33.90. ETC trading volumes have increased from $265 million to $1.1 billion in the past 24 hours, implying that the breakout may continue, according to CoinGecko data. Here are the details…
ETC leverages Ethereum’s Merge, leading altcoin
While there is no clear catalyst behind the rise of Ethereum Classic, it is likely that Ethereum is benefiting from the upcoming Proof-of-Stake upgrade. As we reported on cryptokoin.com, the event called “Merge” will mark the number two cryptocurrency abandoning the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism in favor of Proof-of-Stake. Currently scheduled for September 15, Merge is expected to reduce ETH issuance by 90 percent. It is also thought to make the network 99.9 percent more energy efficient.
ETH, the main asset to be impacted by Merge, also climbed on Monday. It is currently trading at $1,582, up roughly 1 percent. ETH saw a surge over the summer ahead of the event, while ETC also saw a fresh wave of interest. Unlike ETH, ETC also causes “unit bias” as the price per token is lower than ETH. This can lead market participants to purchase an asset without taking into account the market value, which determines the total value of an asset. Bitcoin has the highest market cap in cryptos.
Along with repeated confirmations from Elon Musk, unit bias is what helped Dogecoin’s DOGE rise from fractions of a cent to $0.73 in 2021. In the case of Ethereum and Ethereum Classic, ETC is sometimes perceived as a “cheaper Ethereum” since one ETH is worth $1,582.
ETC hashrate jumps
It is also worth noting that after Merge, Ethereum miners will become obsolete, leading many to flock to Ethereum Classic’s Proof-of-Work network. The network’s hash rate has more than doubled since the market bottomed out at the end of June. An all-time high of 47 terahash per second (th/s) was observed on Monday. This means that the network is now more secure than ever. The ETC hashrate level, which represents the total computing power used for mining and processing operations, was 29.85 TH/s on 7 August.
Miners who invested in the PoW consensus model began to contribute to ETC mining. BTC.com, one of the largest mining pools, as we reported as Kriptokoin.com, announced last week that it will offer zero-fee ETC mining for three months from September 1st.
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