Ethereum price is at $1,284, down roughly 13% from day of Merge
According to the onchain analytics firm sentimentLarge holders of Ethereum, namely sharks and whale addresses, which hold up to 1 million ETH, have dropped $4.2 billion worth of ETH, which is 3.3 million coins in the past five weeks. The Ethereum merge happened on September 15th, much to the delight of the community.
The excitement around the Merge, which finalized the network’s transition to proof of stake, boosted the price of Ethereum and that of related cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum Classic.
However, the brutal crypto bear market has already wiped out most of these gains. Ethereum itself is priced at $1,284, which is about 13% less than on the day of the merge. The massive dumping of Ethereum addresses can now be considered a major contributing element to the decline.
Ahead of the much-publicized event, the onchain analytics firm Glassnode pointed out the potential for a “sell-the-news” drop resulting after the Merge, drawn from futures and options backwardation after September.
It noted that the size and scale of the September to October volatility smile indicated a comparatively low demand for ETH exposure through options following the merge event, which suggests that traders called themselves “rumored” for the merge. Had set up to buy, sell. News” type event.
This was reflected in futures traders pricing ETH at a discount post-Merge and willing to pay a premium for downside protection.
Ethereum Fork ETHW Similar Lowers
To continue mining after it was abandoned by the Ethereum blockchain and to successfully make the long-awaited switch to proof of stake in mid-September, miners created a rival fork called Ethereum PoW (ETHW).
Alongside the drop in Ethereum price, ETHW is down 34.8% for the week at $7.30 and a staggering 87.5% from its all-time high of $58.54 on Sept. 3, according to CoinGecko data.
