Mooners and Shakers: Ethereum Classic a hit with miners; Bitcoin is still being shuffled sideways
Bitcoin seems hooked on a sentiment at the moment. A very, flat, boring, dull feeling, that is. Meanwhile, there are some altcoin movements here and there, with the forgotten Ethereum – Ethereum Classic – grabbing headlines.
Ethereum Classic a recycled hit among crypto miners
Just to clarify, we are not talking about the Ethereum breakout upstart that most in the industry know as the true Ethereum. Not the bull-goose, Merge-tastic, No.2-on-the-chart ETH.
Ethereum Classic (ETC) may be the original, but it is not considered the best. That said, crypto miners seem to be digging it this week. The rogue blockchain, which is and will remain a proof-of-work (PoW) mining protocol, is starting to gain some momentum of its own pre-Merge.
At the time of writing, ETC is up 21.6% in the last 24 hours and rising, according to CoinGecko data.
Ethereum’s merger into proof of stake is partly responsible for spurring this renewed interest in ETC. Because the merger will completely remove mining from the ETH mainchain, it appears that ETC is gaining traction as a venue for the geekiest form of “mining” known to mankind.
There is, as we recently covered with Apollo Capital’s David Angliss and Finder’s Fred Schebesta, still the likelihood of another PoW chain breaking around the time of the merger (September 15th or 16th depending on time zones). And that will present possible chaos, possible opportunity regarding a set of duplicate tokens on the new ETH PoW chain.
However, it is interesting to see this Ethereum Classic peak in the meantime. The price increase is no doubt also being fueled by a handful of top mining pools lending their support, including Ethermine, Antpool and now BTC.com , which has launched a dedicated Ethereum Classic pool with “zero fee” mining for three months.
Ethereum Classic’s ( $ETC ) The average hashrate soars upward to all-time highs as the merge approaches pic.twitter.com/zjq1VGD3XM
— The TIE (@TheTIEIO) 5 September 2022
Even Ethereum talisman Vitalik Buterin has no problem with the original Ether blockchain, describing it as a welcoming community and “a really nice chain” for those who want to mine.
Buterin also recently criticized the upcoming ETH PoW fork led by prominent miner Chandler Guo, describing the project as “just trying to make a quick buck”.
On the rest of the market…
Top 10 overview
With the total crypto market cap at $1.04 trillion and up approx. 1% since yesterday, here is the current situation among the top 10 tokens – according to CoinGecko.
Ethereum (ETH) has also shown some exuberance over the past 24 hours. Clearly can’t handle ETC grabbing the mic at the moment in the spotlight.
The merger process actually begins pretty much any time now – September 6 – though completion the date should be somewhere closer to the 15th.
Among other benefits, including ROI and long-term scalability improvements, the Proof-of-Stake merger will reportedly reduce Ethereum’s carbon footprint by 99 percent.
Did #Bitcoin stop shopping this weekend? The price seems fixed
— Benjamin Cowen (@intocryptoverse) 5 September 2022
As for Bitcoin, what’s going on? Not too much at the moment price wise… It’s been about 10 very straight days of crabbing sideways just under and just over US$20k.
But it’s perfectly fine if you like to accumulate at these levels, says Collective Shift’s Ben Simpson.
✅ Crypto is boring = Big accumulation period
✅ ATH Stablecoins on exchanges = bullish
✅ MVRV showing undervalued Bitcoin
✅ Lightning network hits new heights for capacity = bitcoin becomes a better payment system#bitcoin #crypto— Ben Simpson (@bensimpsonau) 5 September 2022
Overdraft and downdraft: 11–100
With a market cap of around $8.4 billion to around $430 million in the rest of the top 100, let’s find some of the biggest 24-hour winners and losers at press time. (Statistics accurate at time of publication, based on CoinGecko.com data.)
DAILY PUMPS
• Ethereum Classic (ETC), (market cap: USD 5.67 billion) +25%
• DeFIChain (DFI), (mc: USD 791 million) +16%
• Bitcoin gold (BTG), (mc: US$458 million) +13
• Ravencoin (RVN), (mc: 449 million USD) +13%
• Curve DAO (CRV), (mc: USD 462 million) +8%
DAILY SLUMPERS: Helium out of gas
• NEXO (NEXO), (market cap: USD 535 million) -8%
• Helium (HNT), (mc: USD 508 million) -7%
• EVMOS (EVMOS), (mc: USD 690 million) -5%
• The LEO token (LEO), (mc: USD 4.7 billion) -4%
• Chain (XCN), (mc: USD 1.62 million) -3%
Around the blocks
An assortment of coincidences and relevance that stuck with us on our morning through the Crypto Twitterverse…
We covered potential The ETH PoW chain shared the opportunity with David Angliss of Apollo Capital recently, but blockchain and crypto tweeter Bobby Ong also gives a pretty good overview of how best to prepare…
The Ethereum merger is scheduled to take place on September 13. The Christmas season is here again.
ETH holders will soon be airdropped ETH PoW tokens. What should you do to position yourself in the best possible way?
Here are 7 steps you can consider to take full advantage of the merger:
— Bobby Ong (@bobbyong) 5 September 2022
braid braid braid braid braid braid braid braid braid braid braid.
— Caroline Bowler (@CaroBowler) 6 September 2022
💥JUST: Germany approves €65bn ‘inflation support’ spending package. 🤔
— Bitcoin Archive 🗄🚀🌔 (@BTC_Archive) 5 September 2022
we are so early #BTC pic.twitter.com/MzQP9vJ5cx
— Sheikh Roberto (@roberto_saudi) 5 September 2022
