Cryptocurrency Prices Today: Bitcoin Below $20,000; ether falls above 8%. Check the latest prices
Cryptocurrency prices plunged following the major software upgrade of Ethereum, the most commercially important blockchain in the digital asset sector. Bitcoin, the world’s largest and most popular cryptocurrency, traded more than one percent lower at $19,736. The global market cap for crypto today was over $1 trillion, although it was down over 3% in the last 24 hours to $1 trillion, according to CoinGecko.
On the other hand, Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain and the second largest cryptocurrency, plunged around 8% to $1,471 after Ethereum moved to proof-of-stake for its consensus protocol, The Merge has been completed after several delays.
The new system will use 99.95% less energy, according to the Ethereum Foundation. The upgrade, which changes how transactions happen and how ether tokens are created, could give Ethereum a big advantage as it tries to outpace rival blockchain bitcoin.
Ethereum’s renewal makes it much more energy efficient and paves the way for it to scale up and become faster, the network’s developers have said. The transition to a so-called proof-of-stake approach from proof-of-work was many years in the making and seems to have gone well, although hiccups are still possible.
Bitcoin fell below the $20,000 level for the first time since September 8 as sentiment around cryptocurrencies remained bearish. The sell-off occurred when the price broke out of a critical support level of $20,200. On the other hand, Ethereum also fell below the $1,500 level despite the merger being a resounding success with the transition from PoW to PoS. However, the merger may not have an immediate impact on the price action of ETH now, as it takes some time for market participants to digest such important events. ETH’s next primary support level is now at US$1,400, while the immediate resistance is at $1,500. If ETH falls from its current level, we may see ETH test the $1,300 level again,” said Edul Patel, CEO and Co-Founder, Mudrex.
Meanwhile, the dogecoin price today also traded one percent lower at $0.05, while Shiba Inu fell over one percent at $0.000012. Other crypto prices performance today also dropped as XRP, Uniswap, Solana, Polygon, Avalanche, Binance USD, Polkadot, Litecoin, Apecoin, Cardano, Stellar prices traded lower in the last 24 hours while Chainlink, Tron, Tether increased .
(With input from agencies)
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