Ethereum and the crypto market clawed back modest gains after the Federal Reserve (Fed) announced a 75 basis point (bps) interest rate hike. There were no surprises from financial institutions, and the second crypto by market capitalization might be able to extend the uptrend without external distractions.
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As of this writing, Ethereum (ETH) is trading at $1,640 with an 11% profit in the last 24 hours and a 7% profit in the last week. The cryptocurrency reclaimed its position as the best performing asset in the top 10 by market capitalization.
In an interview with Bankless, the inventor of Ethereum talked about what could be the most bullish milestone for this blockchain since its inception: “The Merge”. The event that will complete the migration from ETH to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain with the promise of bringing more scalability and better performance to the network.
For months, there has been an ongoing debate about the impact of this event on the price of Ethereum. Some market participants believe that “The Merge” is already priced in, meaning its impact is currently being reflected in the price of ETH, others believe the opposite.
Buterin himself is among the first, he thinks “The Merge” is not priced in from a market and psychological point of view. The positive impact of this event will have implications with the potential to ripple throughout the entire Ethereum ecosystem.
These effects will trigger when “The Merge” has been deployed to mainnet. Buterine said:
The Merge looks more and more in the mirror of opinions. It’s looking more and more like “hey, these things are actually going to happen and when it does, I expect (developer) morale to go really high (…). I basically expect “The Merge” is not priced in, I mean not only in market terms, but in psychological and narrative terms (…).
What “merger” could spell for Ethereum’s price
Once “The Merge” is implemented, Buterin predicts that Ethereum will change “a lot of minds”. This could potentially hint at the skyrocketing adoption of this network’s ecosystem.
Much has been said about cryptocurrencies and their alleged negative impact on the environment. “The Merge” is expected to reduce Ethereum’s carbon emissions by 99%.
This could result in more institutions and capital previously being pushed out of the crypto space due to its environmental footprint, thus why this event could have profound implications in terms of adoption, appreciation of price and development.
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On the latter, Buterin celebrated Ethereum’s ability to improve its speed of development over the years. After “The Merge,” ETH Core Developers will focus on scalability and building the infrastructure needed for widespread adoption.