Ethereum Classic Climbs 124% in 2 Weeks, Hashrate Spikes, KRW Captures 20% of ETC’s Trading Volume – Altcoins Bitcoin News

About six years ago in July 2016, an Ethereum hard fork was used to address the infamous DAO hack. This specific fork saw the chain split into two factions and a new crypto asset called ethereum classic was introduced to the crypto community. For years, both chains have coexisted using the same proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm, and with The Merge coming, speculators speculate that Ethash PoW miners will transition to ethereum classic mining. Over the past two weeks, ethereum classic has climbed more than 124% against the US dollar, and the network’s hashrate has also risen a lot.

Ethereum Classic captures triple-digit gains over the past two weeks

Ethereum classic (ETC) is six years old this month and has seen some significant gains over the past 14 days. In fact, ever since the inscribed date of The Merge was revealed, ETC has risen in value alongside its counterpart ethereum (ETH).

While ETH has seen a significant double-digit increase of 45.7% in two weeks, ETC has jumped 124.2% in the same time period. Despite its 124% year-to-date increase, ETC is still down 34% and around 80% lower than the crypto-asset’s record high of $167 per unit.

ETC shares the same consensus algorithm as ETH and it seems that PoW miners who used to mine Ether are starting to change and are now mining on the ETC chain. In mid-July, when the tentative merge date was set, ETC’s hash rate was 17.39 Terahash per second (TH/s), and today it is 20% higher at 20.88 TH/s.

ETC hit a peak this week of 21.41 TH/s, and the network is also approaching the record it reached last year. ETC’s all-time hashrate was 28.53 TH/s on May 7, 2021, at block height 12,695,074. At the rate Ethereum Classic hashrate has been going, it is quite possible that the hashrate could surpass the all-time high in the near future.

Korean won represents more than 20% of Ethereum Classic trades

ETC’s average fees are much cheaper than ETH’s average fees, as the average ETH fee today is 0.002 ETH or $3.31, while the average ETC fee is 0.000096 ETC or $0.0031 per transfer. Tether (USDT) is ETC’s largest trading pair, as the stablecoin captures 59.17% of all trades today. After USDT, the Korean Won is at 20.82% of all ETC trades, and the US Dollar is ETC’s third largest trading pair as it has 7.84%.

11.53% of volume on South Korean exchange Bithumb originates from ETC swaps and 22.96% of Upbit’s volume also originates from ETC trades against the Korean Won (KRW). When it comes to decentralized finance (defi), the Ethereum Classic network is way behind the eight ball in terms of defi development.

Ethereum (ETH) has the largest value locked out of all the blockchains today with $56.62 billion total value locked (TVL). That’s more than 65% of $87.56 billion locked across the myriad of blockchains that support defi protocols. Meanwhile, Ethereum Classic’s has a very small TVL, with only $175,483 as of July 27, according to defillama.com statistics.

There are a total of three ETC defi applications compared to Ethereum’s 523 protocols. Over 92% of the value locked in ETC defi applications is held on Hebeswap, an automated token exchange. The rest of ETC’s defi TVL or just $12,366 is held on Etcswap and Swap Cat.

If miners continue to find value in ETC’s PoW security, it is possible that ETC-based defi protocols and smart contract applications could see further development. ETC also has a supply cap set at 210,700,000 while Ethereum’s supply is infinite. Today, 136,026,596 ETC are currently in circulation, which means there are only 74,673,404 ETC left.

The Ethereum (ETH) network and community is much larger than the Ethereum Classic (ETC) ecosystem in a number of ways, and in terms of market capitalization, ETH is a giant compared to ETC. ETH, the second largest crypto asset by market cap, represents 17.7% of the $1 trillion crypto economy with $193.36 billion. ETC, on the other hand, represents 0.402% of the crypto economy’s value at $4.39 billion today.

What do you think about ETC’s recent price increase and hashrate climbing higher? Do you expect ether miners to switch to the Ethereum Classic chain? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is the news editor at Bitcoin.com News and a financial technology journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,700 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.