After a brief price decline, the king of altcoins has recovered to recapture its lost price level. Following a drop in price on August 19, Ethereum has rallied again to return to the previous $1,700 value as activities on the network stabilize.
Meanwhile, the number of active ETH wallets is increasing as the community anticipates the Merge Upgrade. Similarly, the price of ETH has been up by close to 4% in the past week.
The Number of Large ETH Wallets Soars
According to the crypto analytics company, Glassnode, the Ethereum network has achieved some milestones over the past 24 hours. The inflows from mid-level investors are high, with the number of wallets holding over 100 Ether reaching 45,615 – a 26-month high.
Likewise, non-zero Ethereum wallets are also rising after attaining 85,410,502, a new all-time high for the network.
Furthermore, another on-chain data firm, Santiment, revealed that the balance of ETH tokens in the custody of the top ten exchange wallets and non-exchange ones is rising. This comes ahead of the much-anticipated Merge.
Santiment added that since May, the top ten ETH wallets not on the centralized exchanges had shed 11% of the tokens they held. On the other hand, the exchange-based addresses have upped their ETH stash by a whopping 78%.
ETH Dev Reveals Merge Date
Some days ago, a core Ethereum developer, Tim Beiko, disclosed that the Merge would likely occur on September 15. However, Ethereum’s co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, disclosed on August 12 that the exact date depends on when Ethereum’s hashrate is achieved.
It is worth noting that the Merge represents the last stage of Ethereum’s scaling and transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) from the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus protocol. The PoW algorithm is an energy-intensive platform, and the move would free the network of energy consumption.
Therefore, the move would mean miners are no longer needed in the Ethereum ecosystem. A move that would make the token more scarce than it was before.
However, the anticipated Merge comes with another challenge as the displaced miners are working on disrupting the transition process. If they succeed, this will affect the platform’s value.
Despite the miner’s threat, the community is confident in the progress of the second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin.
Billionaire investor Mark Cuban recently noted that he is bullish on Ethereum’s long-term utility. Price prediction after the Merge is what many in the Ethereum community have shied away from; it is still early days. Even the most optimistic supporter of the network has no idea how the ETH rate will react to the transition.
However, it is widely believed that the Merge; will pave the way for Ethereum to address its most pressing issue, the gas fee. High gas fees have contributed to the most uninspiring performance Ethereum has experienced.
As stated earlier, the Merge is critical to the network’s scaling as it will reduce the energy demand by 99.9%.
