Ethereum has been on a tear, gaining 14% in the past 24 hours. The world’s second-biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is now up more than 47% in the past 14 days ahead of the Merge.
See related article: Vitalik Buterin says Ethereum to be 55% complete post-merge
Fast facts
- Ethereum is up 13.9% over the past 24 hours, trading at US$1,637 at 1 pm Hong Kong time on Thursday, according to Coingecko data. The coin benefited on Thursday from the bounceback in risk assets following the Fed’s decision to raise rates.
- Ethereum’s tenth “shadow fork” went live on Tuesday, around 26 hours ahead of schedule, as the network takes steps to prepare for the Merge, expected to occur in mid-September.
- Ethereum developers have been running several tests or ‘shadow forks’ where data from the mainnet are copied to a testing environment, ahead of the merge.
- The shadow fork brings the network a step closer to Ethereum’s third and final testnet merge, Goerli, scheduled for August 10.
- The Merge will transition the Ethereum network to a proof-of-stake from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism, making the network 99% more environmentally friendly.
- While no significant glitches were reported, the network will continue to deploy shadow forks until the Merge.
See related article: Ethereum one step closer to Eth2 with Ropsten testnet merger