Ethereum Eyes $2,000 Following Final Merge Testnet

Ethereum is gaining significant bullish momentum as everything appears to be lining up for a successful transition to Proof-of-Stake.

Ethereum Edges Closer to the Merge

Ethereum briefly surpassed $1,900 today after executing the final test run for the network’s crucial “Merge” upgrade.

Today’s Goerli testnet Merge with the Prater testnet was the final step before the network transitions to Proof-of-Stake. After a successful launch, it looks increasingly likely that the Merge could go ahead as planned in mid-September.

Some of the leading firms in the cryptocurrency industry, such as stablecoins issuers Tether and Circle, have shown support for Proof-of-Stake Ethereum amid conversations over the possibility of a Proof-of-Work fork. Some community members have discussed forking the network due to the impact it will have on miners. When the network switched consensus, miners will essentially become obsolete as validators staking coins will verify transactions. As a result, some exchanges like Poloniex and Binance have shown interest in listing potential ETH fork tokens to meet demand.

The heightened attention on Ethereum has also been reflected in ETH’s price action. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap has risen roughly 12.5% over the past 24 hours, surging from a low of $1,705 to a high of $1,920. The upswing helped ETH breach a critical area of resistance, suggesting further gains could be on the horizon.

Ethereum has broken out of an ascending triangle that had developed on its four-hour chart. The height of the pattern’s Y-axis suggests that Ethereum has entered a 24.3% uptrend. Further bullish momentum could help ETH validate the optimistic outlook and reach $2,200.

It is worth noting that Ethereum must continue to trade above $1,790 for the bullish thesis to prevail. Failing to do so could trigger a spike in profit-taking that send ETH back to $1,688.

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC and ETH.