Many analysts fear that the Merge will be insufficient to put deflationary pressure on Ether at current prices. Although 58% of the holders make money with ETH at current price levels, the net growth and trading signals are still bearish.
Those searching for the Ethereum Merge on Google can find a countdown clock, as with the second-last test of the shadow fork before its activation.
Sam Padilla, a Google Cloud blockchain developer, recently showed an update about the real-time Ethereum Merge countdown clock. Referring to it as a surprise for the people behind Ethereum, he said there was excitement about the upcoming developments.
Its 859 TH/s hash rate and current difficulty levels indicate that the Ethereum Merge might occur in about two days and 22 hours.
The launch of the 13th shadow fork, which copies the information about the state of the Ethereum network, occurred on September 9th.
Tim Beiko, an Ethereum developer, recently stated they would shut down Kiln, an Ethereum Merge testnet launched in early 2022. He said many also expect the launch of the Ropsten and Rinkeby testnets to occur in the fourth and third quarters of 2022.
A Market Downturn Precedes the Ethereum Merge Transition to PoS
According to Vitalik Buterin, the transition to proof of stake (PoS) may occur between September 13th and 15th. However, many fear that change will be insufficient to put deflationary pressure on Ether at current prices.
Bitcoin recently dropped below USD 20,000, fueling the dead cryptocurrency narrative again. Analysts have referred to Bitcoin as a dead crypto over 20 times in 2022 and 461 times since its inception. However, data from 99bitcoin indicate that a significant part remains optimistic about the Merge event.
Thomas Dunleavy, a senior research analyst at Messari Yahoo Finance, said many people think the Merge will die on arrival. He disagreed with that but argued that it would face much selling pressure right away.
The Relationship between On-Chain Metrics and the Price Action of Ether
As the Merge approaches, the number of wallets with more than 1,000 ETH has increased to a 15-month high.
According to data from Intotheblock, 58% of the holders make money at current price levels, while the whales own 40% of all Ether holdings. Despite those bullish metrics, the net growth and trading signals of the Ethereum network are still bearish.
The price of Ether has remained between USD 1,720 and USD 1,784 over the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. Although the second-generation currency has accumulated a gain of more than 20% for two weeks, it has recently suffered minor losses.
However, Ethereum still dominates decentralized finance (DeFi) despite competition from Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), and Polkadot (DOT). According to DeFiLama, the total value locked (TVL) is nearly USD 34.96 billion. ETH now leads 58.7% of the DeFi market with the launch of 553 protocols.
Meanwhile, ETH is trading at around USD 1,739 and has accumulated a 10.1% gain over the last week. While its daily trading volume is above USD 14.59 billion, its market capitalization is about USD 209.32 billion, according to CoinGecko.
By Alexander Salazar
