Ethereum Leaves Bitcoin With 8% Jump, ADA, MATIC, ERG, September 5

Ethereum Displaces BTC As Merge Approaches. ADA was boosted by its own upgrade. ERG and RVN lead races for new miners.

ETH

Ethereum was 8% higher this week as the coin gets a boost from the upcoming Merge upgrade. Bitcoin was weaker with a loss of -0.25% over the past seven days.

In an important move, ETH will switch from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). The upgrade has been years in the making and will improve the speed, energy use and scalability of the blockchain.

However, Ethereum developers have said that gas fees will not be reduced:

Gas charges are a product of network demand in relation to the network’s capacity. The merger ditches the use of proof-of-work, moving to proof-of-stake for consensus, but does not change any parameters that directly affect network capacity or throughput to a significant degree.

But the upgrade will reduce the energy consumption of Ethereum by 99.5%. It will avoid potential problems with regulators and authorities in the future if they crack down on energy-intensive mining.

There was also some negative price action, with funding rates on Ethereum futures turning negative. Ethereum has an all-time high “open position” of 4.21 million, with recent short positions pushing funding rates to -0.024%.

ETH traded above the $1500 level and the next significant resistance is $2200.

ADA

Cardano was the top coin among the majors, rising 12% as the coin nears its own update.

There is growing excitement among Cardano fans as the Vasil upgrade gets closer. Blockchain’s hard fork upgrade is now scheduled to happen on the mainnet on September 22, according to developers.

ADA whale transactions also showed a notable increase over the past two days, with large investors showing interest in the coin leading up to the Vasil hard fork. Vasil is a major upgrade that will increase Cardano’s scalability and reduce transaction costs. The upgrade was originally planned for June, and had several delays. But developers said in tweets on Friday that the upgrade had met the criteria of “successful execution and comprehensive testing of all core components, plus confirmed community readiness.”

The price of ADA traded just below the $0.50 level and could start a recovery towards the $1.00 mark.

MATIC

The price of Polygon’s MATIC coin was also higher after US brokerage Robinhood added the coin to its growing list of cryptocurrencies.

Robinhood announced on Wednesday that it had added support for MATIC deposits and withdrawals on the Polygon network. Customers will now have the ability to send and receive MATIC via the Polygon blockchain, and that could increase volumes in the token.

Robinhood had listed MATIC on its platform back in April with SHIB, COMP and others. However, the platform restricted MATIC transactions to the Ethereum network. Polygon noted the development on its website.

The move is set to bring all the benefits of Ethereum’s Layer-2 (L2) solutions to Robinhood users for the first time, including faster transactions and lower fees compared to Ethereum. Robinhood has over 20 million monthly active users and the popularity of the coin could see new investors emerge.

MATIC is trading at $0.87 after a recent test of $1.00, and another push to that level could see a breakout higher.

ERG

A recent Twitter survey by node operator Cryptovium has shown that most Ethereum miners intend to mine Ergo tokens after the merger.

“With the imminent PoS ETH merge, I’m curious what all the #miners out there plan to move their rigs to.”

Ahead of the upcoming upgrade event, analyst Miles Deutscher identified four issues that could affect the merge: the possibility of delay, the consequences of a PoW fork, the censorship resistance of the PoS chain, and the post-merge stake yield.

The poll listed four options for miners: Ravencoin, FLUX, Ergo and Ethereum Classic. From nearly 5,000 entrants, Ergo was the most popular choice, with nearly half of the vote at 45.5%. FLUX was the next choice at 27.6%, followed by Ravencoin at 19%, and last was Ethereum Classic, which accounted for just 8%. It’s a disappointment for ETC after a recent rally in hopes of renewed attention from miners. RVN was higher again this week as miners continue to see the coin as an option for new income. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently endorsed Ethereum Classic as the PoW chain miners should switch to.

Nevertheless, Ergo’s leadership over FLUX is dominant, and society was positive about the move:

It’s a very welcoming community and I think they will definitely welcome Proof of Work fans…If you like Proof of Work, you should use Ethereum Classic. It’s a really nice chain.

One user questioned the poll’s validity by asking if @cryptovium’s follower base would act as an echo chamber and skew the results. @cryptovium admitted this may be the case. However, he pointed out that opinion polls often involve “other communities”.

ERGO traded at $4.30 after a recent rally and will look for further gains above the $5.60 resistance level.