Ethereum Hits Fresh 2022 High Against Bitcoin As Merger Event Approaches

As EthereumThe biggest upgrade since the network’s inception in 2015 is expected within about a week’s time, the price of the industry’s second largest cryptocurrency has been on a rollercoaster ride recently.

Last month, the cryptocurrency briefly surpassed the psychological $2,000 level, but the momentum didn’t last long, as the asset fell back to within the $1,500 – $1,700 range.

Currently trading at around $1,610, Ethereum rallied 6% in the past 24 hours to recover from a sudden – and what appeared to be a rather speculative – plunge the previous day, when it fell near 1,500 dollars.

A more interesting development, however, is Ethereum’s historical competition against Bitcoin (BTC) – the market’s oldest and largest cryptocurrency by market value.

While the so-called “flipping” – an event where Ethereum’s market capitalization eclipses Bitcoin’s – may not have happened yet, the price of ETH against BTC has been quite decent since mid-June.

As data from CoinMarketCap shows, the ETH:BTC ratio reached 0.08514 Bitcoin per 1 Ethereum late Wednesday night, which is the highest level the pair has traded this year.

It is also the best performance for Ethereum versus Bitcoin since last December, when the market – fresh from its all-time highs – was on the verge of a downward spiral that eventually took the price of Bitcoin below $20,000.

Ethereum puts pressure on the market leader

Whether this bullish trend has already been priced into the merger – Ethereum’s imminent transition from proof of work (PoW) to a less energy-hungry one proof of effort (PoW) system – is anyone’s guess. Nevertheless, it will definitely be interesting to see how the events develop in the coming weeks and months.

Still, as Dan Held, head of growth marketing at Kraken, recently told DecryptEthereum’s upcoming merger is likely to add more pressure on Bitcoin, which in turn could lead to future price movements.

In particular, as Held noted, this could be relevant as the Bitcoin vs Ethereum narrative comes to the attention of the growing army of environmentalists concerned about Bitcoin’s energy consumption.

“I think that will put pressure on Bitcoin’s energy consumption, because they will point to Ethereum and say, ‘Hey, this blockchain’ – I’m talking from a layman’s perspective here – ‘this blockchain doesn’t use that much energy at all, and you spend a lot.’ And it is. They’re not going to understand proof of effort versus proof of work, or anything else.”

Bitcoin is up 2% over the past day, trading at $19,182 at press time.