- Ethereum rose by 15% on Saturday showing a major rally.
- Ethereum has also outperformed Bitcoin in terms of trading volume on futures markets.
- Much-anticipated The Merge is being touted as the main catalyst for the second largest cryptocurrency.
On Saturday, the top-altcoin Ethereum traced a bullish rally having increased by 15%. The cryptocurrency reached its highest level since June 13. At the time of writing, the top altcoin was trading at $1,482.99, a 9.27% rise in the past 24 hours.
On June 13, the cryptocurrency reached $1,422, the highest since June 13. In the last 24 hours, around $196.72 million worth of Ethereum short positions has been liquidated. This is because of the massive rise, shows data from Coinglass. In addition, Ethereum even surpassed Bitcoin in terms of trading volume on futures markets on Saturday.
On July 16th, Ethereum managed to gain as much as 12% against Bitcoin. The ETH/BTC pair touched its highest level since late May. Experts believe it was in response to its ninth shadow fork going live on July 14. Though the timeline is still not final which means highly-awaited The Merge is going to be delayed again.
In December 2020, the Beacon Chain, the proof-of-stake version of the Ethereum blockchain was launched. The last testnet to go through transition would be Goerli. Following Ropsten and Sepolia. Goerli is expected to transition in August. It is the final step leading up to the highly awaited The Merge.
The proof-of-stake transition is being touted as the major bullish catalyst for the second-largest cryptocurrency this year. Therefore, the recent hike didn’t come as a surprise. Ethereum is 72% far from its peak of $4,878. The top altcoin needs to gain a lot before reaching its historic peak.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/07/18/ethereum-experienced-a-whopping-15-rise-in-its-value-heres-why/