Ethereum price hits 45-day high following successful Kiln testnet merge
ETH's upcoming transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus model has retail and institutional investors buzzing.
- Experts believe that ETH's value will soar after it switches to a PoS framework, a development that will also see the network's energy consumption drop by 99.5%.
- ETH's market dominance currently stands at an impressive 18% while the total capitalisation of the digital asset sector lies at approximately AUD$2.9 trillion.
- The value of Loopring and Dogecoin have risen by 57% and 30% respectively over the last couple of weeks.
Ethereum, the world's second-largest crypto asset, has been following the movements of the market at large, with the altcoin having logged in fortnightly gains of 30%. Not only that, ETH is now exhibiting a 12-month profit ratio of around 92% while trading at a price point of AUD$4,838.
The current uptick seems to have been going on since 15 March, when Ethereum's highly anticipated merger on the Kiln testnet concluded successfully. To elaborate, the merge saw the currency successfully meeting the preliminary conditions needed to make a switch to a POS framework. Price-wise, over the last 72 hours, ETH's value has surged by over 25%.
As per a number of prominent crypto research outlets, ETH's transition to a PoS consensus framework will most likely have major "bullish implications" for the currency. In this regard, analysts for global macro and cryptoanalysis firm Macro Hive opined that by reducing its annual energy consumption by over 99%, Ethereum will be able to attract more investors and institutional money.
Lastly, the merge will also have a major effect on ETH's circulating supply, as issuance will most likely drop off once "block rewards" are eliminated from the picture, with staking yields entering the fray instead. Some experts are of the view that the monetary effect of the merger will be similar to what has been historically observed after each of Bitcoin's halvenings (that take place once every 4 years).
Loopring value spikes by 50+% post GameStop integration news
Loopring (LRC), an Ethereum virtual machine (EVM)-compatible DeFi solution that allows NFT developers and investors to transact at ultra-low prices and fast speeds (thanks to its use of a L2 scaling technology called zk-Rollups), has seen its value surge over the past month. Data available online show that between 21 and 23 March alone, the price of its associated crypto offering LRC spiked by a staggering 57%.
The increase in demand for LRC has been driven largely by a recent announcement by American video game and consumer electronics retailer GameStop, who revealed this month that it had integrated a beta version of its NFT marketplace into the Loopring ecosystem.
Dogecoin forges remarkable turnaround
DOGE, the wildly popular meme-coin that has Tesla CEO Elon Musk as one of its core backers, has been on the receiving end of a brutal correction between May 2021 and February 2022. The currency's value slid by approximately 85% over the stated period.
However, that trend seems to have finally come to a halt, with DOGE's value having climbed by 30% over the last 14 days. On a technical note, since 13 March, the asset's value has increased from US$0.10 to around US$0.14, while forming a "falling wedge" pattern that suggests a bullish trend over the coming few weeks.
Interested in cryptocurrency? Learn more about the basics with our beginner's guide to Bitcoin, dive deeper by learning about Ethereum and see what blockchain can do with our simple guide to DeFi.
Disclosure: The author owns a range of cryptocurrencies at the time of writing.
