Spoiler alert: The Merge was successful.
Sometime around 3:00 AM Eastern Time, viewers of perhaps the nerdiest livestream of all time were greeted with this:
Just like that, the era of proof-of-work for Ethereum was over, and the era of proof-of-stake had begun.
Last week, we made three main suggestions for you leading into The Merge:
- Keep an eye on its success, as a successful Merge could lead to a short squeeze that boosts ETH’s price.
- Steer clear of the EthPoW fork.
- Avoid the trade entirely, as it is challenging to trade when the Fed is hiking rates.
Well, we ended up two for three.
- The Merge was successful, but instead of a short squeeze, we got a “sell the news” event as everyone decided to take profits. The result is an ETH that has been down-only since The Merge.
- EthPoW turned out to be the disaster we feared it would be. It’s been plagued with problems since the start, has already endured a brutal but predictable hack, and is currently down ~90% from it’s all-time high. Hopefully, you took our advice and avoided this one.
Avoiding the trade actually proved to be good advice. Since The Merge, ETH is down ~15%. They don’t say “don’t fight the Fed” for nothing.
Cause For Celebration
Even though the price action for ETH has been bad since The Merge, there still is a lot to celebrate:
- The Merge itself went as smoothly as anybody could ever hope for. It’s a true testament to the hard work and talent of the developers who put years into this.
- The Merge reduced global electricity consumption by 0.2% overnight.
- The stage is now set for Ethereum to proceed with the rest of its roadmap.
Overall, a great day for crypto.
