It has been a volatile yet positive week for cryptocurrencies, as traders ignored the warnings from crypto winter veterans that there was more downside in store and jumped back into the market at the first sign of rising prices. This caused traders to ignore the warnings that there was more downside in store for cryptocurrencies.
The fact that the Crypto Fear & Greed Index has moved back into the fear zone after setting a new record for the amount of time it spent in the extreme fear territory as a result of falling prices in May and June is evidence that sentiment has begun to shift in the opposite direction.
A closer look at the timeline reveals that the news of the anticipated date for the Ethereum Merge was made on July 15, which is believed to have been the impetus behind the surge that was caused by great fear.
Following the disclosure of the Merge date, the price of Ether (ETH) has increased by 38.5 percent, moving from $1,190 to a daily high of $1,650 on July 22. This occurred during an overall bullish day in the market. The data was obtained from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.
The overall market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies has climbed by 15 percent over the course of the past week, bringing it to its present value of $1.051 trillion. This increase occurred concurrently with the growing price of Ether.
A boost is given to projects affiliated with Ethereum.
When looking at the top gainers over the past week, which include multiple projects associated with the most prominent smart contract protocol, additional evidence can be found that the excitement surrounding Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake (PoS) is what is fueling the rally. This can be found by looking at the top gainers.
As Ethereum makes the transition to PoS, the massive mining network that is currently responsible for the network’s security will become orphaned and will require a new chain to mine in order to continue operating.
Due to the fact that it is officially the first Ethereum proof-of-work chain, Ethereum Classic (ETC) is considered to be one of the most viable solutions in terms of network architecture and interoperability.
The price of ETC has increased by a factor of one hundred over the course of the past nine trading days. This suggests that there is a sizeable population of traders who also anticipate a miner migration to Ethereum Classic, which may portend well for the price of the tokens over the course of the longer term.
Liquid staking regains its mojo
Lido DAO (LDO), a liquid staking platform that allows depositors to stake their Ether in exchange for stETH, which is a one-for-one representation that can be used as collateral in decentralised finance, is the other notable gainer that is benefiting from developments relating to Ethereum. Lido DAO is a notable gainer because it is a liquid staking platform that allows depositors to stake their Ether.
Since the Merge data was disclosed on July 20, the price of LDO has surged to its current price of $1.59, representing an increase of 80 percent from its previous price of $0.885, after briefly reaching a high of $1.92 on July 20. This information comes from data compiled by Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.
The price of LDO has benefited not only from the momentum gained from its association with the Ethereum Merge, but also from the addition of support for other protocols such as Solana (SOL) and Polkadot (DOT), as well as its expansion to layer-2 protocols. This is in addition to the momentum gained from its association with the Ethereum Merge.
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