The Ethereum price is approaching critical levels as the bullish momentum continues to build ahead of the anticipated Merge. That could trigger a fresh push and take the price to around $2,000. Meanwhile, market participants are still speculating about the second cryptocurrency’s future. Ethereum’s price is currently at around $1,700, down 4% in the last 24 hours. On the other hand, it gained 9% in the last week. Despite the recent decline, Bitcoin outperformed this second largest crypto by market cap, which is up 11% in seven days.
Who Will Sell After “The Merge”?
According to Santiment, with the Ethereum merge happening this week, mentions related to the monumental event are very high on social platforms. At the same time, the market is divided on the expected outcome of the Merge, which will see the implementation of a PoS consensus. Some think the price will fall under a “buy the rumor, sell the news” strategy, while others think it will continue to rise.
A report released by Nansen, an on-chain analytics firm, revealed that the Merge impact on the Ethereum price could be negative for the cryptocurrency from stakers. It analyzed the various factors that affect the price of ETH.
Nansen rules out any short-term adverse effect from these investors since some of them won’t have access to the ETH that is now locked on the Beacon Chain, the PoS blockchain, until the Shanghai upgrade is put into place in 2023. Stakeholders will be able to withdraw their money with this upgrade.
Illiquid stakeholders are less likely to sell after the Shanghai upgrade in 2023, according to Nansen, if the price stays over $600. Around 1 million ETH is stuck at that price and might “drip not the market.”
The report also noted around 71% of all ETH used to secure the blockchain during the PoS process was lost. It said that 18% of the cryptocurrency is owned by investors who profit and are most likely to sell their assets once they can unsell.
Although selling these assets could negatively affect the ETH price, Nansen does not expect it to impact the market significantly. It believes this could be a fundamental bullish factor for the price of the cryptocurrency following the Merge.
Whales Accumulate Ethereum In 2022
According to Nansen, there has been a significant increase in the number of billionaires and millionaires in Ethereum. These individuals are not associated with exchange platforms or smart contracts.
Despite the price action, the report states that the large players have been stacking Ethereum. This trend continued throughout the year. Fast forward, it peaked in August and September.
Losses Reach $180 Million in the Market
The last trading day saw a spike in losses as the market recovered from its recent losses. It started last week when bitcoin recovered from its lows and went back to around $20,000. That caused short traders to sell their positions immediately. However, this could not be the end of their troubles.
Long-term investors were able to gain from bitcoin’s recovery as it moved towards the $22,000 mark. However, this weekend, the liquidations in the crypto market started to increase. That caused many traders to lose money.
The total liquidation volume in the market during the 24 hours was around $180 million. Short-term investors were the ones who took the biggest hit as they lost money. During the last four hours, the liquidations in the market had reached $25 million.
At this time, there were 48,510 traders in the market. The biggest single liquidation event during the 24 hours was the sale of over $3 million on the Okex exchange. This transaction was carried out across the BTC-USDT-SWAP pair.
Source: https://crypto.news/ethereum-bullish-momentum-continues-to-build-as-the-merge-comes/