The pencil preview date for The Merge, revealed by Ethereum developer Superphiz, is less than two months away and the announcement has apparently prompted a number of developments. First, the network’s native token Ether has seen a significant increase in value and second, Ethereum’s hashrate has fallen by 18.21% since June 30. once held publicly on July 5, and today there are only 22.77 million worth nearly $35 billion.
Data shows that significant amounts of Ethereum have been withdrawn from centralized exchanges
July 9, 2022, Bitcoin.com News reported on the delay difficulty bomb and the fact that Fusion would be postponed until at least September. The merge is essentially the upgrade that ultimately makes the transition Ethereum (ETH) network from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS).
There are now two chains, one which still operates PoW and the Beacon chain which is designed for PoS. On the same day, it was reported that 13,012,469 ETH was filed in the ETH Contract 2.0. Since, 136,416 ether has been deposited in the contract and there are 410,903 validators.
On July 14, software developer and community manager of the Ethereum Beacon chain, Superphiz, revealed the possible date for The Merge and the timeline indicated that it could take place during the week of September 19. The developer however pointed out that the date is not final and that the community should pay attention to the official announcements.
Since, ETH managed to gain 36.8% against the US dollar in 30 days, as The Merge boosted the smart contract platform token the price. Amid the price spike, Ethereum’s hashrate also fell, slipping below the region of 1 petahash per second (PH/s) or 1,000 terahash per second (TH/s). Computer processing power has improved since then, as the hashrate of the Ethereum network is coast along at 1000 TH/s.
The seven-day stats further show that 2.36 million Ether has been withdrawn from cryptocurrency exchanges since July 5, according to cryptoquant.com data. Ethereum followed the same trend as Bitcoin (BTC)as both crypto assets have been pulled from centralized exchanges in large numbers lately.
News Bitcoin.com reported on July 10, how the number of BTC held on exchanges fell 9.109% from statistics recorded on May 22. Recent data shows that ethereum buyers and holders are also withdrawing large amounts of ether from exchanges. Data of Chainalysis indicates that the “change of [ethereum] held on the stock exchange on the last day, is 1.82 million [ethereum]the highest level in over 365 days.
Merger or insolvency fears?
Although the most recent withdrawals can be attributed to Fusion, crypto investors withdrew large amounts of funds from exchanges due to crypto companies having major financial problems. Over the past few weeks, three major crypto firms filed for bankruptcy and about five or more crypto asset platforms have halted withdrawals.
#Celsius: not your keys, not your coins😂 pic.twitter.com/BFRiYF0oOf
– TF (@TF_826) July 15, 2022
People who held crypto assets on platforms such as Celsius and Voyager Digital, for example, saw their frozen accounts. The fear of losing funds to an insolvent crypto platform has likely caused an unprecedented wave of withdrawals. During the first week of July, Blockfi CEO Zac Prince Told the public that even though the company was not exposed to Celsius, when Celsius frozen operations, it caused a “significant increase in customer withdrawals” on the Blockfi platform.
While insolvencies have caused major losses across the digital currency economy, crypto veterans have scolded newcomers not to hold their assets on a non-custodial basis. Insolvencies and bankruptcies have also triggered an increase in the number of people tell others the adage “not your keys, not your coins”.
What do you think of the large number of Ethereum withdrawn from centralized exchanges? Do you think the withdrawals are coming from people anticipating the merger or do you think it’s because people are afraid to leave funds on centralized exchanges? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.
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